Perry Mason: The Case of the Ruthless Reporter (1991 TV Movie) User Reviews

News Anchor Gets His

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 30 March 2008]

This Perry Mason movie finds Raymond Burr defending a television news reporter who had taped an interview with him. Before airing the segment the arrogant anchor of the show had it cut from broadcast, arousing the ire of reporter Kerrie Keane.

But it turns out that anchor John James as per usual in these films has a lot of enemies. But when someone puts two slugs in him in a parking garage and Kerrie Keane is arrested of course she sends for Perry Mason.

As we all know guilty people just don't hire Mason as an attorney. So it's up to Burr, Barbara Hale as Della Street, and young associate William R. Moses to investigate and find the real culprit.

They don't teach you to be an action hero in law school, but that's what Moses has to do to get a key witness. Then again he sees more action outside the courtroom than in as Burr traps the guilty party with the fruits of the team investigation.

One thing about this particular episode, the guilty party is a bit of a surprise since it's someone the team got somewhat close to. That happens a few times in the Perry Mason films as opposed to the old hour long TV series. Then again, the two hour format allows for more character development.

A good entry in the Perry Mason series, there ain't any bad ones.

A hamburger-with everything on it-of a case!

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 18 January 2011]

****SPOILERS**** By blackmailing his boss Vic St. John, Jerry Orbach, top Denver station KGGY news anchor Brett Huston, John James, has gotten practically everything he wanted. Now the low down scheming heel wants to have the entire on the air news cast co-anchorwoman Gillian Pope,Kerrie Keane,sportscaster Chuck Gilmore, Philip Michael Thomas, weatherman Al Shockly, Earl Billings, as well as his ex-wife producer Twyla Cooper,Susan Sullivan, fired by threatening to reveal their past indiscretions. With the news of Huston's latest venture,in a leaked memo, made public everyone at the station has it in for the slime-ball! It's after he's finished doing his newscast Huston is finished for good in him being found shot to death in the TV station's underground garage!

It's co-anchor Gillian Pope who's picked up by the police in her not only publicly threatening Huston's life, and throwing a can of face cream at him, but being spotted at the garage, where she claimed that she wasn't, moments before the shooting. Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, taking Gillian's case feels she innocent but her lying to him about her whereabouts at the time of Huston's murder makes things far worse then better for her. Finally coming clean and telling Perry the truth Gillian admits that she indeed was at the garage the time that Huston got it but not to kill him but plead with him to get her job back. As things turned out someone got to Huston before she did and ended up whacking him with two bullets in his gut!

It takes a lot of shoe leather as well as flying time for Perry's private investigator Ken Manlansky, William R. Moses, to track down a key witness in Huston's death KGGY news cameraman Sam Garza, Gary Glem, who checked out of Denver and ended up in L.A in order for him to both avoid the long arm of the law as well as Perry Mason's cross-examining him on the witness stand! Malansky finally gets the very agile and Tarzan-like vine or cable swinging Garza who in trying to avoid capture ends up electrocuting himself!

***SPOILERS*** Unknown to Huston's killer Perry pulled a rabbit out of his hat on him, or her, in making him believe that Garza was killed, This shocked him to admit his crime when the "dead" Garza suddenly appeared in court to contradicts the killers testimony in that it was Garza, whom he figured wasn't around to defend himself, not him that did the killing!

Another bullseye for Perry Mason as he hits his target dead center as a defense attorney by weeding out all the innocent persons, including his client Gillian Pope, who were suspected in Brett Huston's murder. Perry uncovered the truth that eventually lead to the fast food restaurant chain "Happy Hamburger" that finally implicated Huston's killer. It was at that "Happy Hamburger" joint, said to have the best and most juicy hamburgers in town, that at the end of the movie where Perry took his entire staff including Gillian Pope, with him picking up the tab of course, out for dinner.

The Death of TV News

[boblipton · 6/10 · 30 January 2019]

Perry Mason is at a TV station for an interview. When the star reporter is killed, the police quickly settle on who the murderer is. However, he's smart enough to get Perry as his lawyer, which means that he didn't do it, that there are plenty of people with as good a motive and that Perry will badger one into confessing on the witness stand in this passable but not outstanding entry into the TV movie series starring Raymond Burr as Erle Stanley Gardner's lawyer-sleuth that began a quarter of a century after the long-running TV series ended.

Burr is back as Perry, Barbara Hale as girl Friday Della Street, as well as William Moses, as his legal associate and field investigator. Jerry Ohrbach shows up as the manager of the TV station, but after that the list of guest stars grows a little thin. The background is the dirty politics of a news station and while the actual murderer is a bit of surprise, director Christian I. Nyby II seems to have to slow down the cutting to make this one come out to its wonted length.

Better than average Mason TVM

[bob the moo · 21 September 2002]

Mason is due to have an interview on news TV station KGGY with Gillian Pope. However Brett Huston, a selfish host on the show cuts her interview out of the show. Huston not only upsets her but is on edge with many others at the station. It's no surprise that he gets killed but Pope is the suspect and turns to Mason for defence. Meanwhile Ken Malansky investigates a link with a blackmail scheme.

If you've seen one of these things then you've seen them all. The legal realism of these shows are always very doubtful but the drama is still enjoyable. Mason does his usual ripping into the witness stuff which is good but this time he has more objections overruled and DA LaRusso manages to hold his own well. Ken's investigation is better than usual here but it does feel like he's in a separate movie and it doesn't quite fit together as well as it is meant to. He also gets a bit more action than usual but it isn't directed very well.

The cast are the usual - Burr does well and is a bit like a comfortable old suit. Hale has even less to do than usual but is OK. Moses is good value as a cut price action man. The `oh look it's ..' count that is normally one in the Mason series goes nuts this time with Orbach (Law & Order), Romano (Under Siege) and tough guy (Beau Starr).

The production values are a little higher than usual and the sets don't look like they off a daytime soap! The plot is good and has the usual twist at the end that you could never guess in a million years. Overall a very enjoyable addition to the series that is better than the norm.

The case of the Ruthless Reporter

[coltras35 · 6/10 · 21 May 2023]

At TV station KGGY, news anchor Brett Huston (John James) does not have many friends amongst his colleagues as he holds secrets on all of them, including his bosses, and as such struts around the place like he owns the place, antagonizing others especially Gillian Pope (Kerrie Keane) by doing what he likes. When Brett is murdered in the parking lot with a gun belonging to Gillian she finds herself arrested and calling on the services of Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and his team to defend her.

The background of news and reporting makes this rather routine Perry Mason TV film interesting - it might run to the formula, but, like all Perry Mason TV films, they are entertaining. There's some good chases featuring William R Moses, and a fine twist ending, though the explanation can be convoluted and a bit confusing. Plus I felt the identity of the murderer wasn't very convincing. It felt a bit forced just to make it surprising.

Story OK - Let down by acting

[harloon-68278 · 5/10 · 29 October 2020]

A familiar story-line punctuated by more than usual action scenes, the performance was let down by the casting. Apart from the regulars and Jerry Ohrbach, the list of guest stars was very underwhelming - too many castaways from daytime television.

It will delight fans, but to those who are not it will be just another routine courtroom drama.

[jamesraeburn2003 · 9 May 2018]

Perry Mason is back in court to defend a news station's co-anchor Gillian Pope (Kerrie Keane) who has been charged with the murder of her anchorman Brett Huston. There is much circumstantial evidence pointing to her guilt, but the ace attorney discovers that just about all of Gillian's colleagues had reasons for wanting him dead. They include Huston's ex-wife Twyla Cooper (Susan Sullivan) who hated him playing her for a fool with his numerous affairs. Gary Slate (Peter Jurasik), the weatherman, was angry because Huston stole his girl from him and Chuck Gilmore (Philip Michael Thomas), the sports commentator, believed that he was trying to implicate him in a drugs scandal at Briggs College. In addition, a leaked memo by Huston demanded that they all be fired from the KGGY TV news station. Huston, it seemed, had a lot of power over the station's manager Vic St John (Jerry Orbach), but why?

A standard and largely to formula entry in the seemingly never ending series of Perry Mason revival TVM's. Fans of them will be kept more than happy and only people with the "If you've seen one you've seen them all" view will have any reason to complain.

The story plays fair with the audience (for the most part) but at the end it falls into what was the weakness of some of the other films by throwing up evidence out of thin air without any insight as to how Perry solved it or reached that conclusion. Yet, it must be said that the vital clue that finally got Perry his man is ingenious and only somebody as observant and as eagle eyed as him could have spotted it. Without wanting to spoil it for people who haven't seen it I will confine myself to say that it involves a film, fast food chains and a discrepancy involving a neon sign. Puzzled? Watch it and see.

The standard of the acting is generally of a high standard throughout, but there isn't really all that a challenging part for anyone in the supporting cast. Burr is as good as always as Perry Mason and is a commanding presence in his courtroom scenes. Barbara Hale has very little to do in her scenes as Della Street. William R Moses does his usual action man bit as Ken Malansky, which this time sees him journeying to LA to track down a TV cameraman who is a witness to a murder. In this episode, Malansky falls for a young news reporter called Cassie Whitfield (Mary Page Keller) who was blackmailed by the murdered man. Ken thinks that an explosion which killed her engineer may have been intended to kill her, but is Cassie as much of a victim or as innocent as she appears?

Overall, this should delight fans of the Perry Mason revival series, but to people who are less fond of it will most probably see it as another routine courtroom drama.

Very ordinary

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 28 August 2017]

THE CASE OF THE RUTHLESS REPORTER is a very ordinary PERRY MASON TV movie, watchable enough at the time but completely forgettable afterwards. Mason himself is involved in the murder at the outset, as he's axed from an appearance on a news show and the man doing the axing is subsequently found murdered. It turns out he has lots of enemies, of course, so Perry and co. must work out which of them did it. This one goes through the motions throughout and half of it seems extraneous at least, but the presence of veteran stars like Jerry Orbach and Andy Romano just about sees it through.

Waste of time

[rhjeans · 3/10 · 29 August 2022]

The script is a dog. The ending was worse. Perry Mason's dialog in the last segment of Woodfield on the stand was downright corny. The prosecutor was hammering Mason earlier for the same type of nonsense he was saying there. The judge, played by Betsy Jones-Moreland, showed the character of a good judge. Until the end when she and the prosecutor went silent as Mason engaged in his two-bit monologue.

The Sam Garza stunts were the best part of the show. Gary Giem did a bang-up job there.

I watched the show to see the outcome, like most of the Perry Mason shows are intended for. But when I got there, I was sorry that I spent my time watching the show.

Rarely do I feel so negative about a TV show, but I think this episode deserves it.