Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star (1986 TV Movie) User Reviews

My First Perry Mason Movie

[sambase-38773 · 7/10 · 27 December 2022]

I've seen quite a few episodes of the original Perry Mason series, but this was my first Perry Mason movie. So I don't have any others to compare it with.

I enjoyed it. I liked the cast and although the writing was not inspiring, just adequate, it was a fun story. And it kind of predicted the future. Just do a Google search of Alec Baldwin and you'll see what I mean. There was a tragic accident involving Baldwin, a "dummy" gun, and a young woman who was killed. Heartbreaking.

But back to our movie. It takes place in the world of show business. I'm not going to go into the plot because I don't like reviews that do that and there are numerous other ways to get the plot if you really want it.

So I'll quickly wrap this up and say that it was fun to watch.

Did The Penny Drop Thicke?

[boblipton · 6/10 · 4 February 2019]

When movie star Joe Penny stalks onto the stage of talk-show host Alan Thicke and, in front of forty million people, shoots him dead, can even Perry Mason make the real killer confess on the stand? We all know, of course, that Penny didn't do it, since he hired Perry Mason.

Unhappily, this entry in the TV movie series starring Raymond Burr is not a topnotch one. Despite the many familiar faces in the cast, the comedy-danger routines by William Katt as Mason's investigator are weak, the clues that reveal the killer are revealed just before the denouement, and Toronto standing in for New York by placing a lopsided green street sign on a corner is very unconvincing.

Those issues aside, it's always a pleasure to see Raymond Burr in his signature role.

The case of a shooting star

[coltras35 · 6/10 · 18 May 2023]

An actor rigs a fake on-air shooting with the connivance of his friend, the show's host, but the practical joke goes horribly wrong when the gun, which he'd loaded with blanks, turns out to contain a live round.

A good idea, though a little farfetched, but it's fun mainly due to the film sets, the world of making films - oddly, the firing blanks subject has been in the news recently due to an incident on the film-set. The ending was a bit unpredictable- the suspects are quite good, especially Ron Glass who acts as a possessive manager of an actress. Joe Penny is good as the suspect. The courtroom buildup isn't as strong as in the other entries.

Usual Mason fare but weaker than usual plot

[bob the moo · 14 December 2002]

As part of a comic prank on a live TV show, Robert McCay takes a gun loaded with blanks and pretends to shoot his friend and host Steve Carr. However the gun is loaded and McCay kills Carr. Mason agrees to defend McCay as he claims someone else loaded the gun. Meanwhile Paul Drake tries to track down the film shot on the set of McCay's movie that may show who loaded the gun with live shells.

When you've seen one Perry Mason film then you've pretty much seen all of them. Seemingly open and shut case is contested by Perry Mason. Drake chases the key piece of evidence (often with a sidekick) providing comedy and action while Mason does the courtroom shocks. It all ends with twist that you couldn't guess unless by luck. If you like them then this will just about hold you as it is about average fore the series. The plot is OK but if you start to look closely at it, it is so full of holes it could be called a sieve. The twist at the end is out of the blue but just feels silly in the setting of a courtroom (I mean – where has the judge gone during the two `private chats').

The cast hold their roles well. Burr is only doing his thrid Mason movie of the period and feels fresh and enthusiastic. Katt is OK and some of his stuff is amusing – his ususal side kick is poor though. The best part of the cast is Stiers who I always felt was one of the more capable actors to play Mason's opposite number on the prosecution team.

Overall this is the rule – if you like a Mason film then you'll like them all. This is true here, all the formula is in full effect and only a weaker than usual plot means it feels like it is slightly below the average for the series.

We'll have to shoot the scene with the Vampire now or they'll kick us out of here! it's the Grand Finally

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 15 October 2011]

***SPOILERS*** It at first looked like defense attorney Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, really put his head into a bear trap. Perry takes on a murder case that the defendant Clint Eastwood like action hero Robert McCay, Joe Penny, was seen by some 40,000,000 people, much like the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby, on live TV gunning down night talk show host Steve Carr played by Alan "Thick of the Night" Thicke. It was McCay who appeared unannounced on the Steve Carr show and as if he was being mind controlled, by aliens from outer space or the CIA, pulled out a .357 Magnum, his movie star trademark, and blew Carr away! Even though though he had no evidence , since there was none, to get McCay off Perry took on the case on the theory that this all, the shooting on Carr, was supposed to be a prank with Carr himself participating in it. What went wrong was that someone put live bullets in McCay's prop .357 Magnum when he wasn't looking that was meant to kill Carr! What Perry Mason now has to find out is who switched the fake bullets with live ones and why did he or she want Carr dead!

Things looked so bad for both Perry and his client Robert McCay that the D.A who never won a case in banging heads with Perry in he courtroom Michael Reston, David Ogden Stiers, now feeling curtain that he can finally put one over on the great Perry Mason like a shark smelling blood in the water rushed from his place of business in Denver Colorado to New York City to prosecuted the case against McCay! D.A Reston like all of us watching didn't realize that Perry had an ace, or better yet a royal flush, up his sleeve that he was going to spring on him at the conclusion of the film. It's a long shot but it had to do with the missing and unaccounted five minutes that the gun that McCay shot Carr with was left unattended. it was during that critical period that someone put live bullets in it that, in knowing the prank that Carr & McCay were about to pull off, ended up taking Carr's life hours later.

***SPOILERS*** Perry with the help of his leg man private eye Paul Drake Jr.William Katt, together with supermarket tabloid reporter Michelle Benti,Wendy Crewson, tracked down this critical piece of information a film clip that had the actual killer of Steve Carr in it! It was that clip that had the killer break down in court and admit his or her crime. But we has another surprise coming in that Carr's killer was not who we thought he was but who Perry knew all along. And in that just waited for him to come clean so that this whole confusing mess of a movie could finally come to closure: To the court the friends and members of Steve Carr's family as well as most of all the by now totally confused and befuddled audience watching it!

Yes Perry Mason is a great defense attorney who could very well have gotten Adolph Hitler or Jack Ruby off in he were to defend him in a court of law but here what he did was just too much for us watching to take. Not that he got Robert McCay off on a murder rap that was witnessed live on TV by over 40 million people as well as those in the Steve Carr audience. But that he was more then willing to take on the case in the first place! That without him at first knowing the facts in the case, which Drake Jr & Michelle Benti had yet to dig up, and with his reluctant client McCay anything but cooperative with him!

Great! Way heavier hitting than the usual episode!

[Father_V · 10/10 · 22 June 2022]

I have no idea what film the other written reviewers were watching. This one, unlike the disappointing Nun, follows the classic format. The writers really struggled to find out how to use Katz effectively in the first films, this one they made him just like Paul Sr, even putting him in a classy plain suit at one point. That was fairly shocking after the "mod" outfits they had him in previously. The investigation phase has them chasing various leads with the usual sets of red herrings. They even pull a blatant con on the audience by having Perry say, "He smiles too much," about one particular guy. In a rarity, Perry discovers the actual killer at about the same time as a sharp audience member could (I missed it. Ooooops). Usually Perry knows far in advance of the viewer so this was a treat.

Now the actual spoiler. The episode addresses head on, and in a compelling manner, the issue of child abuse. The victim behaves as an adult in a manner consistent with that trauma. There is no tidy ending for that character shown on screen, nor is it clear how the State will proceed in the light of the evidence that came out at trial. The cops wait outside the courtroom but they haven't stormed in to make the arrest & make no move forward to the end. Very often in Perry Mason, the real criminal is someone the audience has absolutely no sympathy for, made doubly worse by having let the blame fall on Perry's client. This ending throws that on its head, and it thus mirrors real life far more than usual. The audience is left wondering about how to find justice (what is due/owed to each person), and that is thoroughly contemporary. There is acknowledgment also for the first time that the laws have changed from the 50's & 60's in that the death penalty is not on the books in that jurisdiction. That was always an overarching issue in the original series. Really, this is the best integration of a thoroughly dated series (which I nevertheless love!) into modern sensibilities and does it without pandering & preaching which modern media just can't convincingly do.

A Gag Gone Way Bad

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 22 June 2008]

Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star finds our defense attorney in New York defending a man who killed a friend in front of 40 million people. The victim Alan Thicke is a famous host of a late night talk show apparently modeled on Johnny Carson. Of course Thicke has credentials for that in his own right.

You'd think that it would be an insurmountable case for Raymond Burr, but Perry Mason fans know a lot better. Mason is asked to defend action film star Joe Penny who walked in on Thicke's live show and shot him while it was being broadcast by the studio which was producing Penny's latest film. The two of them had quarreled the day before, but they were old friends.

In fact this was a gag that went horribly wrong. Penny borrowed a prop gun from the film and the real murderer switched it to a live round. Who else might want Thicke dead?

This was one of the weaker of the Perry Mason series. I can't believe that Penny if in fact it was a gag would just casually walk off the TV set and go to his favorite restaurant and order dinner where the cops do grab him. I think he would have seen immediately this gag went all wrong the second Thicke started bleeding.

But what I'm still trying to figure out is how California District Attorney David Ogden Stiers wound up prosecuting in a New York homicide. Can't be because of his track record against Perry Mason.

Of course Perry got his client off, but it might have been easier to prove Penny didn't know he had a real round in the weapon. Even against a prosecutor borrowed from Los Angeles.

Not really one of the best Perry Mason movies, but it has enough to make it worth the trip.

[jamesraeburn2003 · 24 April 2018]

Perry Mason is back in court, this time defending action movie star and director Robert McCay (Joe Penny) who is accused of killing his best friend, the talk show host Steve Carr (Alan Thicke), by shooting him in cold blood on air with forty odd million witnesses to swear to it. McCay said it was intended as a practical joke and that someone must have switched the blanks in his gun with live ammunition. Suspects include Peter Towne, the long standing director of the murdered man's TV show, because Carr refused to release him from his contract preventing him from getting more lucrative directing assignments. Perry puts his long standing friendship with Carr's widow, Alison (Jennifer O' Neill), and her daughter Sharon (Lisa Howard) by agreeing to represent McCay. But, however much it might pain him, they are both potential suspects in Carr's murder...

Not really one of the best Perry Mason revival TVM's, but it does have enough good moments to make it worth the trip. The solution in this one is more emotional and sensitive than usual - no, I won't give it away but I will confine myself to saying that the culprit is somebody who is quite close to Mason. When it comes it does stir our emotions, it has to be said. William Katt's action man part as Paul Drake is quite entertaining here. In this one he is being hounded by a young ambitious journalist called Michelle Benti (Wendy Crewson) by insisting that she is allowed to help him investigate the case by providing him with whatever leads she finds in return for the story. This character would make a second appearance in The Case Of The Scandalous Scoundrel in which she becomes Perry's client after being framed for the murder of her boss, but she was played by another actress in that one. There are some amusing insights into the world of low budget movie making like when Drake is coaxed into appearing in a trashy vampire movie by its frustrated director after an artiste failed to appear for shooting. As it happens, the guy playing the vampire is the man Drake is after as he is an important witness in his boss's case. The pair fight - for real, as it happens, since he is attempting to get away from Drake. However, the director isn't aware of this and he keeps the cameras rolling excited because he thinks they are acting and what they're doing is terrific.

Aside from Burr who could by now play Perry Mason in his sleep, the best performances in this one come from Jennifer O' Neill as Carr's widow and Lisa Howard as her daughter .

Bland murder mystery

[helpless_dancer · 5/10 · 29 December 1999]

Mason takes on another seemingly hopeless case when a man murders a talk show host on television in front of 40 million viewers. The blanks he thought he was firing [the recoil from the .357 magnum should have told him the round was live] had been replaced by a nefarious felon intent on making him the patsy. As usual, Perry puts his brilliant deductive powers into play and solves another sticky crime. I like the films with William Moses playing Mason's detective more than the ones with Katt. Moses is a more believable performer.

a memorable quote

[stepmom43 · 2 April 2001]

Perry Mason (speaking to a group of prospective college alumni donors): "There was a trial once in which the artist Whistler sued a man for liable about remarks he made concerning the fees Whistler charged for his paintings. 'Can you tell me,' the opposing lawyer asked, 'how long it took to complete your painting?' Whistler replied, 'two days.' 'And you expect 200 guineas for your two days work?' 'No, I expect it for the knowledge of a lifetime.'"

Possibly the least interesting Perry Mason of them all

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 6 June 2017]

THE CASE OF THE SHOOTING STAR is one of the weakest Perry Mason TV movies I can remember watching. Everything about it is predictable and hackneyed without a single memorable plot incident. Even the opening murder is fumbled and doesn't seem realistic at all. Burr and Hale do their best here even though their characters are stuck going through the motions. William Katt has even less to do than normal and it's no wonder he ended up quitting the series when the writing was this poor.