Wordiezett
So much average
Rosie Searle
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
dougdoepke
A beauty pageant operator swindles the winners, but ends up on the wrong end of a knife. So who did it.It's madcap sleuthing with Williams' Perry Mason going about 80-miles per hour and no Stop signs in sight. His Mason's never at a loss for a snappy line, at the same time the dialog crackles forth like machine gun fire. What can you say about a lawyer who sleeps on the floor with a whiskey bottle for company. It's sure not TV's favorite straight-arrow attorney. Then there's girl Friday, Della Street (Tobin), who's about as demure as a hash-house waitress slinging her own one-liners. No, this is definitely not Raymond Burr's Perry Mason. In fact, it's hard to believe the two versions are supposed to be the same character.Maybe you can follow the whodunit. I couldn't, but that's beside the point anyway. It's really a Warren William showcase. The plot's just something to hang the actor's hat on. And catch the mystery's unraveling, including flashbacks for slow readers like me. It takes up about half the run-time. If there's a more swollen solution on record, I haven't seen it. Still, I really liked the first part, the one with one of the odder beauty contests on record. If it were me, I would have given a blue ribbon to all the lucky legs.Anyhow, the film's sometimes fun, sometimes not. I get the feeling it too often tries too hard. All in all, the result is really a Warren William vehicle, again showing why he was such a commanding presence from that neglected decade.
masercot
The best portrayer of Perry Mason and the best Della Street in the same movie...Mason is portrayed in the same manner as in Gardener's books. He's playful, shrewd, irreverent and kind of a jackass. Definitely NOT the stodgy inert lump of good looks that Raymond Burr was.The man gets in people's personal space, jokes, tickles and even raids refrigerators of the people he's questioning. He is, for want of a better word, "wacky".The plot is kind of fun: A con man is killed and the main suspects are everybody. Mason, as usual, keeps one step behind the murderer and two ahead of the police. One of the cops is played by Barton MacLaine, a standard in thirties detective movies, later to become General Peterson on I Dream of Jeanie...
David (Handlinghandel)
Warren William is a heavy-drinking Perry Mason in this highly entertaining outing. Della Street is given wit, beauty, and a touch of pathos by the underrated Genevieve Tobin. The rest of the cast is superb, with no exceptions.For a movie that came out after the Code, it is quite racy. The title refers to a contest in which ladies do not show their faces but compete as to the most beautiful stems. And what a group we see! Lyle Talbot was a decent leading man during this period. He was nice looking. It's always hard for me not to think of his Ed Wood performances when I see him in these early movies, though.
ClubSoda
When I sat down to watch this I thought, another Perry Mason movie. I have always loved Perry Mason but this is the best damn one you will ever see.As well as having a great plot and whodunnit side to it, it has got to be the funniest movie you are ever likely to see. A classic scene arises at the end of the movie when Perry has gathered everyone together to announce the killer, at the same time that the doctor is giving him a physical.If you are into comedy/whodunnit movies then I highly recommend this one.
