Perry Mason: The Case of the Desperate Deception

An all-star cast of former notables make up the faces in this Paris-set adventure for TV's most popular lawyer, Perry Mason. THE CASE OF THE DESPERATE DECEPTION sees Mason and his buddies travelling to France to take on the case of a young man who has been wrongfully accused of murdering a suspected former Nazi. Once there they uncover a sinister conspiracy of hidden identity and motive, while Mason prepares to defend his client in court.

I remember watching these latter-day Perry Masons when I was a kid and really enjoying them. They remain entertaining to this day, with fast-paced and involved story lines and plenty of characters at odds with each other. The use of the Nazi hunter theme and the setting make THE CASE OF THE DESPERATE DECEPTION stand out from others in the series, but really it's the cast that makes this work.

This TV film features a nice role for an aged Ian Bannen as a Nazi hunter and Paul Freeman as the ruthless fellow in his employ. Yvette Mimieux is the ageing wife of the murdered man and Ian McShane a delight as his colleague. British soap star Kim Thomson even has a minor part as a flame-haired beauty. On top of all these, Terry O'Quinn is an investigator. Raymond Burr remains the consummate professional, Barbara Hale cameos, and William R. Moses is involved in a brief romance and car chase. None of it is less than entertaining.

This story couldn't miss as it featured several big screen stars - and big ones at that: Teresa Wright (Mrs Miniver), Ian Bannen (Flight of the Phoenix), and the still-stunning and almost too-beautiful Yvette Mimieux (The Time Machine and countless others). And that they could act is an understatement. Part of the wonder of the original Perry Mason series was the creative use of senior movie stars. Here that was carried through with great effect - a wonderful relief from the mediocrity of soap opera actors who frequently populate low-budget made-for-TV movies. The story itself was somewhat reminiscent of A Place Called Midnight in the original black and white series. But here there were many new twists but still with the sinister darkness of the Nazis at every turn. This is well worth a watch for Mason fans.

US marine officer Captain David Berman (Tim Ryan) has been arrested for killing a former Nazi SS officer called Dieter Krugman, whom was living in Paris in the guise of a successful businessman called Felix Altmann. The prosecution has a strong case against the defendant because it was well known among his friends that he had an obsession with tracking down Krugman as his mother Helene (Teresa Wright) is a survivor from a Nazi death camp in which she saw her two brothers murdered by Krugman before her very eyes. Helene is also a close friend of Perry Mason and she persuades him to fly to Paris and prove her son innocent. Mason believes Berman to be innocent because he tells both him and his mother that he wanted to have Krugman arrested and tried under the Crimes Against Humanity Law, which doesn't suggest he wanted to kill him. Nevertheless, that is not enough to win his case. But Mason soon discovers that Altmann's wife Danielle (Yvette Mimieux) has a strong motive for wanting her husband dead because she was having an affair with one of his former employees Andre Marchand (Ian McShane) and needed her inheritance to support his business interests. In addition, Mason has a mysterious Nazi hunter called Otto Rosen (Ian Bannen) to investigate whom refuses to fully explain why he conducts his activities in hiding rather than with the public, which most other Nazi hunters do.

THE CASE OF THE DESPERATE DECEPTION is one of Burr's better latter day movies as Perry Mason, which is easily his most celebrated role. Between 1985-93 he returned to the role over twenty times in a series of made for TV movies. These varied in quality with several suffering from lacklustre scripts, which threw clues at us out of nowhere with no real insight as to how Mason solved them. In addition, the running time was often padded out since the films more often than not were far too long for their plots with the exploits of Mason's sidekick Ken Malansky (William R Moses) who often raced around the States trying to track down a missing witness that was vital to his employer's case with a few fights and car chases thrown in.

Here, however, we have a stronger plot line than usual and George Eckstein's script doesn't just dream up clues out of nowhere and the story moves neatly and logically to its conclusion. It also makes a nice change to see Malansky's part used more effectively, in which the car chases are abandoned in favour of more straight detective work as not to confuse the plot. Raymond Burr is enjoyable as always especially in his courtroom scenes as he grills the real guilty party at the witness stand and we also have a better supporting cast than usual with veteran British actor Ian Bannen who is very good as Otto Rosen. Teresa Wright offers a sympathetic portrayal as Helene Berman who has to relive her horrifying memories of the concentration camp in order to help Perry Mason prove her son's innocence.

When the son of an old friend, a marine stationed at the US Embassy in Paris, is found standing over a dead former concentration-camp officer, with his service revolver on the ground the murder weapon, is there anyone except for Perry Mason to get him freed and the real murderer confessing on the witness stand?

This in an entry in the TV-movie series produced a quarter of a century since the TV series starring Raymond had ended. It's clear that the producers were going for something special. A lot of it is shot in Paris. The accused is Tim Ryan, who looks amazingly like currently-hot movie star Bruce Willis.

Given the Holocaust denial movement, and their rise during the era, this was clearly intended as a statement on the issue. the presence of Teresa Wright as a crippled survivor of the death camps speaks to that.

For it's one and only time the Perry Mason series went abroad and where better than Paris to defend the Marine son of a Holocaust survivor charged with the killing of a former S.S. captain who personally killed members of his mother's family and crippled her. It might have been nice had Raymond Burr and Billy Moses taken Barbara Hale along, but I guess someone had to tend to the office.

An old film favorite Teresa Wright plays Tim Ryan's mother and her testimony on the stand is the best part of this TV film. Her experiences going to the death camps is most moving.

For reasons I'm not quite sure, the French cede jurisdiction to the US military in this case. Ryan is a guard at the US Embassy in Paris, but the killing was definitely not in the line of duty. I would think the French would insist on trying him. In any event Perry Mason represents Ryan at a military court martial which he's permitted to have civilian counsel should he choose.

The murderer is a choice from way out of left field or in this case I should say right field. It does have to do with the events in the concentration camp, but in a most oblique way.

I think there have been better Mason films, but this one should satisfy the legion of fans of Erle Stanley Gardner's unbeatable attorney.