Perry Mason: The Case of the Wicked Wives (1993)

Simply Perfect

Let's be realistic.

How sad is this?

Excellent but underrated film

***SPOILERS*** With the passing of actor Raymond Burr Perry Mason was written out of the script with Perry going to Washing D.C to be confirmed by the US Congress as the next Supreme Court Justice. In Perry's big shoes there stepped in the opera singing defense attorney Anthony Caruso, Paul Sorvino, who can not only sing up a storm but cook,in being a master Italian chef, up one as well!It's when Caruso gets the news that his good friend fashion photographer David Morrison, Eric Braeder, needed him to get his former top models as well as wives together to do a photo shoot that will very possibly get him out of bankruptcy he jumped at the offer! It was David's latest wife Dee, Kathy Ireland, who got Caruso to take up the case of contacting his former wives Abby Jane Shelly and Nina, Shelly Hack Beverly Johnson Maud Adams and Kim Alexis, whom he was also involved in their divorcing proceedings against his client David!During the middle of his photo shoot Dee became very annoyed at David when she spotted his assistant Margo, Paula Marshell,leave his private dressing room buttoning up her blouse indicating that he was involved in some hanky panky with her. Sure enough that evening David ended up dead with a sword through his chest with the woman spotted leaving his studio identified,from behind, as his outraged wife Dee! It's now up to Caruso to forget about helping David out in his finances, since by being dead he doesn't need his help anymore, but to get his wife Dee off on a murder charge in being the person who did David in!The movie soon leads to the great outdoors where Margo and her cowboy boyfriend Cutter, Yargo Constantine, are hold up which at first doesn't seem to make any sense in David being murdered! It up to human punching bag and Caruso's news assistant Ken Malansky,William R.Moses, to track down the pair with the help of local cowboy Big Red, Ron Headlee, to show Manansky the ropes in him surviving in the wild! Malansjky doesn't let the audience down with him getting a far worse beating, from all sides, then you would have expected him too as well as, by riding for days at a time, a serious case of saddle sores!****SPOILERS*** It's Caruso,after he took time to stop both singing and eating, who in the end uncovered the reason behind David's murder. As usual it had to do with David's unfeeling and selfish lifestyle where he not only took the women that he married, Abby Jane Shelly & Nina,for a ride but also their, and his, family members as well! In this case it was someone so close to him that if David had any brains in his head as well as just plain common sense he would have known who that person was as soon as he laid eyes on her!

I am not sure where they went wrong on this one. They tried to throw a curve by having the obvious suspect actually be guilty. They continued the trend of showing Ken Melansky bumbling around again before getting bailed out by others to do his job. The casting is inspired, with 4 beautiful actresses lead by Octopussy (Maud Adams) herself. They replace Burr with an Italian Tenor / Chef attorney. They even cast Eric Braeden, TV vet of the Young & Restless & the Rat Patrol as the victim.I think the big problem is a flat script. It's kind of like the production company itself lost a lot of inspiration on Burr's death. If they had thrown in a funeral for Perry, it would fit the mood. There is very little fun in this one. I only wish they could have given the lady actresses more scenes & more to do, but the story prevented that. I think you should skip this one unless your desperate for a mystery or perhaps like looking at an interesting casting experiment. That is all there is too this one.

I think the humor in this movie, although it's not really supposed to be humorous per say, was up there. I think this movie was incredible with Paul Sorvino in the lead role. Raymond Burr was greatly missed, but the supporting cast did a wonderful job. Especially Moses! Moses's Ken Malansky found himself in a lot of sticky situations which added humor to the movie. I think Barbara Hale, although she wasn't in it enough, did an awesome job playing her part. There was proof of team work here and Hale and Moses make an awesome team. I don't think they could've done better than this really. God bless the both of them for trying!

I thought this movie was OK. The cast seemed to be doing their best but in my opinion they were missing someone essential! Raymond Burr who would usually play the main character of Perry Mason died before this movie was made. It's still an OK story but having seen other TV movies with Burr in, I don't think this one is quite so good.