Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Aspen Orson There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

csteidler People are waiting in Perry Mason's outer office; his secretary, Della Street, tells them that he is "very busy." Inside the office we see the great lawyer working—on a crossword puzzle. The level of seriousness never rises very high in this fast-paced series mystery.The plot is pretty standard but fun—a grumpy old millionaire (Harry Davenport) is sure that someone is out to kill him. His big old estate is populated by a couple of grandkids, a granddaughter's fiancé, a nurse, a caretaker….and one night the house burns down with Davenport in it. His will, it seems, was recently changed— requiring that the caretaker and the cat stay on at the house. Perry Mason, who wrote the new will for the old man, sticks around to investigate: "I represent the cat." Ricardo Cortez is pretty good as Perry Mason; he manages to shift fairly smoothly from silly to suave to serious crime-solver as the plot progresses. (Much as I like Warren William, I have to say that Cortez plays Mason in his one attempt with a little more of an edge.)The rest of the cast includes June Travis as Della, and Gordon Elliott (later Wild Bill) as a spoiled grandson who throws a shoe at the cat. The plot thickens occasionally but keeps on moving quickly, culminating in a courtroom surprise. Lots of fun for us fans of 1930s series mysteries.

utgard14 A crotchety old millionaire dies in a fire not long after having his attorney Perry Mason change his will. Perry suspects murder and investigates. The fifth Perry Mason film from Warner Bros. is the first without Warren William and the best of the entire series. This time Perry is played by Ricardo Cortez. Cortez's performance is closer to how Perry should be than Warren William's version, which often felt like a poor man's Nick Charles. There's no camera mugging here and Perry actually does lawyer stuff, not just act like a private dick. Sadly, this was Cortez's only turn as Perry. The other reason I like this one is the mystery atmosphere which is missing from the previous movies. They relied more on comedy and typical B detective movie material.Lovely Jane Bryan makes her film debut here and does well. Love the waffle stuff. The great Harry Davenport plays Bryan's grandfather. June Travis takes over as Della Street. Della and Perry had married in the last movie in the series but that's forgotten here. Another change is that Perry's comic relief stooge Spudsy Drake is now named Paul Drake and is played by Garry Owen. He's probably the most grating part of the film and the only part that seems like it would fit right in with the Warren William movies. But that's a minor complaint really. It's a solid murder mystery with a brisk pace, some nice atmosphere, and a great twist.

Michael_Elliott Case of the Black Cat, The (1936) *** (out of 4) Fifth film in Warner's Parry Mason series now features Ricardo Cortez in the role of the attorney. This time out an old man calls Mason to his house so that he can change his will since he's worried someone in his family is about to kill him. A few days later the old man dies in a fire but after the autopsy it turns out he was dead hours before the fire. This is a pretty solid little crime picture from start to finish and I was surprised to see it didn't suffer any from not having Warren William in the lead. Cortez actually delivers a very strong performance as the attorney and manages to come off looking and sounding like a real detective and someone with a brain in their head. The supporting cast doesn't feature any huge stars but they all fill their roles nicely. One interesting note is that the cat from the title plays a big part in the film but it's a black and white cat. One has to wonder why Warner didn't use a black cat.

blanche-2 It should come as no surprise that Erle Stanley Gardner, the author of the Perry Mason series, hated the way his hero was portrayed in the movies. Consider this: When he saw Raymond Burr walk in to audition for the part of Hamilton Burger, he told the casting people, "That's Perry Mason." One can just imagine, then, how fond he was of Warren William, Donald Woods and Ricardo Cortez.It's not so much the actors, of course, as the emphasis of the films -Warren William, whom I like a lot more than one of the posters on this site, always had a little too much fun, and his character was loosely modeled on Nick in "The Thin Man." Woods was very lawyer-like but lacked spark; Cortez had spark but was more on the smooth, streetwise side than the actual Perry of the books, who was a very intense young man, given to big speeches.In this film, Perry is asked to act as attorney for a caretaker's cat named Clicker who isn't black. That's because the title was decided upon after the film was made. The actual Gardner story is "The Case of the Caretaker's Cat," but black cats were hot in movie titles in the '30s. Peter Laxter's will states that the caretaker has his job for life, but one of the heirs wants the cat gone and is threatening to poison it. Laxter has died in a fire, but Perry soon surmises that he was murdered first and has the body exhumed. He also learns that Laxter cashed out a million dollars worth of stock and that a famous set of diamonds are missing. Two more murders follow. Clicker unknowingly provides an important clue to whodunit. The last few minutes of the film are done in flashback so that we can see how Perry put it all together.Not bad, but none of these men will ever be Perry Mason after Burr did the role so long on television. It's best to just look at these films as mystery stories and ignore the old, unattractive Paul Drake and the pronunciation of Hamilton Burger as Hamilton Berjer (in the Woods version). And that's the way Erle Stanley Gardner would have wanted it.