The Case of the Tsarina's Tiara

I enjoyed the whole jewel heist thing. The beginning was like something out of a 70's robbery bit. And the plot is entertaining. The problem for me was too many characters and too much distraction. One thing that amazes me is the quick trips Mason or Drake to foreign countries to check out something. They make it look so easy. Oh, well, it was still fun.

In a most interesting Perry Mason story, Kendall Clark co-owner of a jewelry firm that Raymond Burr is counsel to becomes the latest Mason client when the body of a notorious jewel thief is found in the trunk of his car. Clark had been on a business trip to Chile and it is in Chile where eventually the murder is solved.

But what was truly fascinating here was that a nice group of conspirators actually tried to use Perry Mason as an unwitting dupe in fraud they were perpetrating. Had Clark not returned prematurely from Chile they actually might have got away with it.

The Hitchcockian McGuffin is as the title says a lost tiara of Czarina Alesandra before the Bolshevik Revolution. Virginia Field used Zsa Zsa Gabor as a model for her exiled countess role and Leonid Kinskey a real Russian is in the cast as a circus performer. They play their parts quite broadly and with a bit of humor not often a part of Mason programs.

But bring Perry in on a dastardly scheme? What did they think?

Can anyone in Hollywood do a reasonable Russian accent? Nina Talbot on Hogan's Heroes (awful), Sue Ann Langdon on McHale's Navy (even worse), and now this Virginia Field Fiasco. And the extreme-but-hilarious over-acting that goes with it! Add a bunch more over-acted "Russians" and you end up with more than the usual PM laughs on this one.

While it fades in to a good start with a South American jewel heist (although it never ceases to amaze me how these palaces/museums ALWAYS have unsecured and unalarmed skylights, making such thefts look easy), it collapses into an overacted melodrama with ersatz Russians and international gem appraisers. In the cold war era, Brezhnev (and Khruschev before him) would have been threatening thermonuclear annihilation to get the tiara returned to the motherland. Leonid Kinskey (the only "Russian" in the cast) at least provides us a little comic relief (especially in court). Be forewarned, you might need some vodka along the way...

Yes indeed, I agree with every word that pmike wrote about The Case of the Tsarina's Tiara. It was bad through and through, with terrible over-acting, and spending a little money on a dialog coach wouldn't have hurt a bit. I would add that if I could subtract half a star from my rating, I would.