The Case Of The Stuttering Bishop (1937)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Best movie ever!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

I missed the beginning of this movie. I enjoyed Perry Mason with Raymond Burr while growing up, so I was fan of enchanted to stumble upon this movie, which I also learned is part of a series that I will now look for. I watched this on TCM. Missing the beginning scenes might be why I was left confused & missed the point of the title. One really needs to pay close attention or you'll not be able to follow it very well & I sure missed something as I was left wondering where the real Janice was - or did the fake Janice also turn out to be the real one?But one thing I didn't miss was was a production goof in which the courtroom chairs & defendant's table are suddenly empty in the midst of Mason's cross of Brownings grandson! As the camera pans back & forth from Perry to the grandson, those chairs & table are filled with people, only to become empty, then fill up again! And that scene lasts for several seconds. Quite funny!

Well, before Raymond Burr assayed the role of the lawyer that solved crimes and never lost a case, the Erle Stanley Gardner literary staple was a film hero - of sorts. The Mason films began in 1934 and Warren William(who I like quite a bit and think was the best Mason) played the lawyer in four films(The Case of the Howling Dog, The Case of the Curious Bride, The Case of the Velvet Claws, and The Case of the Lucky Legs). Ricardo Cortez then played Mason in The Case of the Black Cat(sans black cat) and the last film before Burr did the television role was performed by Donald Woods in this film The Case of the Stuttering Bishop. Let's start with Woods. He is not a bad actor but he has limited charm, range, and likability - certainly not on par with either William or Cortez. His performance here shows signs of good acting but more often than not he is quite "wooden." - You had to know I was going there! As others have noted, the plot in this movie is really quite messed up with the screenwriters trying to squeeze round pegs into square holes. A bishop(played nicely by character actor Edward McWade) goes to Mason mysteriously to hire him to find out the legitimacy of a millionaire's heir. Things get pretty complicated and one may not exactly know where the story is going at all all times. The acting in general is good but many actors are not fully utilized like Ann Dvorak(who could have been an interesting Della Street) as well as others. This is not a bad film but definitely a JV installment in the Perry Mason playbook.

Maybe you can keep up with the plot convolutions better than I could. Finally I lost track of the yellow or pink or white raincoats and threw in the towel. Anyway, it's a mildly entertaining Mason entry, at best. As a matter of fact, it looks to me like Warner Bros. had lost interest in the series—(for example, compare the sparse production values here with the richly produced The Case of the Curious Bride {1935}). This was the last installment and features a boyish Donald Woods as the legal wizard and sleuth. Frankly, in my book, he lacks the forceful presence required to bring off the role in authoritative fashion, and was, perhaps, a last minute replacement for the more familiar Warren William. Ironically, it's this installment that more closely resembles the TV show with its first-part dramatic setup and second-part courtroom pyrotechnics. Too bad the exotic Ann Dvorak is largely wasted as a recessive Della Street— with her distinctive looks and lively personality, she should have been one of the suspects. All in all, the 70 minutes is for hardcore fans of the series and for fans of the perennially addled Tom Kennedy as the aptly named "Magooney".

Donald Woods and Ann Dvorak were fine as Perry Mason and his secretary, Della Street, but it took me a while to get used to not seeing Raymond Burr in the Mason role. The complicated plot involves two women named Janice who claim to be the heir to the fortune of Douglas Wood, and an Australian bishop who asks Mason to see Mira McKinney, who can prove which one is the real one. But Wood is killed going to the rendezvous with McKinney, who is charged with murder. In customary Perry Mason style, there is a final courtroom scene (in this case only a hearing) where Mason flushes out the killer and the phony Janice. I enjoyed trying to follow the plot and the comedy that was prevalent. Tom Kennedy suddenly remembers an important item when he hears the name "Sampson," because it involves a ship called "Delilah." Woods always asking Dvorak to remind him to give her a raise when she gets a good idea (a running gag). Even the bishop, who explains he stutters only when under some emotional stress, provides some comedy at the end. He sheepishly stammers "g-g-goodness g-g-gracious" when three of the principal women kiss him goodbye.