Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

VividSimon Simply Perfect

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . to movie goers spending dimes they scarce could afford than to see the folks projected on screen lighting cigarettes with thousand dollar bills? This hilarious bit takes place 8 minutes, 32 seconds into Perry Mason's fourth movie, THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS. And newly-minted bride Della Street Mason is not messing around with monopoly money, either. The Great Depression was caused by America's One Per Cent getting almost as greedy as they are today, latching on to nearly as big a share of the U.S. wealth, and wasting it pretty much as unproductively as today's Rich People. This period gave rise to the expression, "They've got money to burn." Without having the availability of Black Market transplant organs, personal jet planes, Platinum Starbucks Cards, and Apple Watches, Great Depression One Per Centers literally had no way to spend their money fast enough. Some of them grew depressed at this problem, and complained to President Herbert Hoover that smoking might kill them if they had to consume one cigar for every $50 or $100 bill they burned. Out of concern for the health of America's "Betters," the U.S. Treasury slapped Grover Cleveland's face on the $1,000 bill (and high rollers could light their Cubans with Salmon P. Chase $10,000 bills). VELVET CLAWS validates that the American Dream always has been to rake in enough resources from normal people to have "money to burn." I'm sure that Perry Mason himself would side in the current currency debate with those in favor of leaving Alexander Hamilton in place on our tens and Andy Jackson gracing our twenties, so that our One Per Cent folks can light their future cigars with Rosa Parks on inflation-adjusted $100,000 bills.

SimonJack After a couple of seasons of the Perry Mason TV series (1950s-1960s), viewers were waiting and watching for the episode in which Mason would finally marry his secretary, Della Street. But the wait continued through more than two dozen TV movies in the 1980s and early 1990s. And Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale never did tie the knot. Actually, that was true to the Mason story as written by Erle Stanley Gardner in some 82 novels. Gardner wrote his novels up until his death in 1970, two of which were published after his death. And, while his readers knew that the criminal lawyer and his trusted right-hand woman would never marry, there was that hope among viewers that somehow the union would be made in one of the last films. The reason for that hope sprang, no doubt to some extent, from the earliest Perry Mason movies. Way back in 1936, Perry and Della did marry, and it was in this, the fourth film which was made in 1936. Warren William and Claire Dodd had the roles in a script that was built around the couple's marriage. Gardner may not have liked the way his hero was portrayed in the early films, but William made an excellent Mason who was more sleuth and detective than lawyer. And the Warner Brothers team that wrote the marriage into this film made it work well. The mystery of the book is still in "The Case of the Velvet Claws." But here it is cleverly developed around Perry and Della's marriage. And the marriage, honeymoon night with many interruptions, and periodic reunions of the newlyweds add wonderful humor to the story. This is a very enjoyable film, start to finish. I especially enjoyed how Perry handles a double-cross. Not just once, but twice. I think others will too. The only sad thing about this film was that it was to the be the last with Warren William in the lead role.

csteidler Perry Mason and Della Street burst into the courtroom, a noisy crowd at their heels. Boldly interrupting proceedings, Mason announces that he wants the judge to marry him and Della immediately. They're going on a honeymoon then he's giving up his criminal law career: "I have promised Della to become a sober filer of briefs." –Alas, when they get back to his apartment, there's a woman hiding in the bedroom with a gun, and the honeymoon is off.A good balance between humor and suspense keeps this picture zipping along. Warren William dominates proceedings from start to finish in a flamboyant performance that is alternately silly and clever.Of course there's a murder, and the strong plot has the murder victim's wife—who may be guilty herself—accusing Mason of the crime, forcing him to hide out in a hotel and rely on assistant Spudsy Drake to do research and legwork. Eddie Acuff is more comical than serious as Spudsy; he and Claire Dodd (as Della) are both very good.A rather wild climactic gathering-of-the-suspects has Mason passing around kleenexes—over the course of the picture, just about everybody has caught his cold!Great fun.

David (Handlinghandel) Perry Mason and Della Street marry at the beginning. I don't think that ever happened in the TV series.This is a sleek, stylish movie, with good acting and chic sets.I had forgotten that Wini Shaw was in the opening credits and was wondering who that fabulous fatale femme could be. In a dark wig she is very persuasive as the precursor to the betraying woman of film noirs, which would follow a few years later.What a talent she was!