Perry Mason Returns (1985)

After her millionaire employer (Patrick O'Neal) is stabbed to death, his executive assistant (Barbara Hale) is arrested for his murder. She reaches out to her former employer, the renowned attorney Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) to defend her. Based on the character(s) created by Earle Stanley Gardner and directed by Ron Satlof (BUSH DOCTOR). The original PERRY MASON television series ran for nine years from 1957 to 1966. In 1985, instead of doing a reboot of the TV series, a series of 30 Perry Mason TV movies were produced from 1985 to 1995 and this title was the first of the lot. I was a huge fan of the original PERRY MASON series so I looked forward to this, the first of the thirty films and was mildly disappointed. Very little time was devoted to the actual trial and the bulk of the movie was focused on the investigation prior to the trial. The suspects aren't very engaging and the solution to the mystery is pedestrian. With William Katt, Cassie Yates, Holland Taylor, Richard Anderson and Al Freeman Jr.