Perry Mason: Elisir di morte

Head of a large cosmetics firm, Alana Westbrook calls a press conference to announce her new anti-aging cream and to prove it's effectiveness presents a birth certificate proving she is really 62. After a break in at her offices Alana takes her formula to her home safe, but after a party at her house Alana is confronted and killed and the formula stolen. The police suspect Alana's husband but Mason takes on her case and defends Mr Westbrook. Malansky meanwhile goes after Lauren Kent who was seen snooping around and is known to have done dirty tricks work for Alana.

After watching a couple of the `Perry Mason Mysteries' series made after Burr was dead I was ready to return to the films that actually had the title character in the role. The plot here is the normal Mason fare and works well if that's what you're happy with, which I usually am. Malanksy's investigation is good because it has some strong twists that genuinely make you question what's going on. The story has more teeth than usual at times and it is quite dramatic occasionally. The only down side is that at one point the film looks like it's going to be a earth-shattering twist before it falls into the normal `court room confession' ending and is a little disappointing.

Burr is a breath of fresh air after the stand-ins and he goes for it during the courtroom scenes. He is in his element and does well. Moses and Hale are both OK but Hale has little to do as always. The support cast is relatively `all-star', normally we have only one famous face but here we have a good handful. Morgan Freechild is the victim of the piece and the (once) great Tippi Hedren (The Birds) is OK. Other faces that you'll recognise are David Warner and Jonathon Banks (making his second Mason movie appearance).

Overall this is a good entry in the Mason series and appears stronger after watching all the `Mason Mystery' series! However it could have been much better if the ending had gone the way I expected it to but despite this it is still entertaining.