Perry Mason: The Case of the Sinister Spirit (1987) Reviews

• Not A Bad Ghost Story

  aesgaard412001-04-21

  I am not a big Perry Mason fan, but this is the movie that got me hooked more on the movie series than the tv series. It starts out with a pretty good ghost story which I wanted to know a lot more about than the murder. We don't even see much of this spooky old edifice that the plot revolves around, but what we do see has a wonderful shadowy "Dark Shadows" Collinwood kind of feel. The murder mystery, don't get me wrong, is excellant; it has more twists and turns than a politician in a confessional booth. Raymond Burr and Barbera Hale fit into their old roles very well, but William Katt will always remind me of "The Greatest American Hero." Robert Stack emotes a great character just a few shades away from his character of Elliot Ness and Dwight Schultz plays a nervous and slightly shady character not that far unlike Lt. Barclay of Star Trek. Kim Delaney's acting reminds me too much of too many other actresses, particularly that of Joanna Going, but it may be because of too many Dark Shadows parallels: the spooky location, the ghosts, the painting, hidden rooms and the squirrely maintenance man who is almost too similar to John Karlen's Willie Loomis. In short, if it hadn't been for my fondness for ghosts and that series, I might never have seen this movie at all.

• Sticks to formula for the majority to produce a film that will please fans of the Perry Mason films

  bob the moo2006-02-06

  Jordan White is in the process of consulting his lawyer Perry Mason about the potential to sue writer David Hall over similarities to him in Hall's new book when he is called to visit Hall's mansion. When he arrives White finds he is just one of several guests but still there is no Hall. Each guest is given a copy of Hall's new book which apparently has characters very closely modelled on all of them and secrets in their pasts. That night each guest gets a sinister practical joke played on them and they confront White, full of threats and anger. At midnight that night White is called to the building's tower by Hall but just before he gets there someone seems to throw Hall off the building and the witnesses to the fall only see White in the tower. The police arrest White, who immediately turns to Perry Mason for defence and, while Perry starts the trial, Paul Drake investigates strange goings-on within the hotel. It has been some time since I have watched a Perry Mason film simply because I have seen almost all of them. So when this one came onto television I moved quickly to take the chance to see one of the few I have yet to watch. Having seen so many of them I knew just what I was getting into and, aside from a ghostly element to Drake's thread, this pretty much sticks to the formula that made the series achieve an uninspiring if enjoyable standard. The set up to the mystery is slightly different and it does use the ghost element well to make the investigation side more interesting (Drake almost always teams up with a young woman and gets punched – at least this time it feels a bit different). The court case does the usual thing with some nice "objections" etc and the usual last minute revelations; it is never anything that special but it is on formula for the series and as such Perry Mason fans should enjoy it. The cast are pretty good. Burr hardly sets the screen alight but I always liked him as Mason and he has a good presence in the court scenes. Hale has a small role but is comfortable with it while Katt does his usual stuff to introduce a bit of action into the story. Stack is solid enough but I cannot hear his voice without seeing him in his Airplane character – so that undermined the early scenes a bit for me. The support include Schultz, Delaney, Lipscomb and a few others turn in good performances, or at least good for this type of film. Overall an enjoyable Perry Mason film that takes a slightly different tact but generally sticks closely to formula and will please fans as a result. Nothing too special or dramatic and will certainly not win over those viewers left cold by the series in other films but it is worth a look if you like this sort of thing.

• "Enjoyable Perry Mason feature despite the tired haunted house clichés and a few underwritten performances."

  jamesraeburn20032008-11-24

  Perry Mason defends publisher Jordan White whom has been accused of killing famed horror novelist David Hall by pushing him off the bell tower at a creepy and supposedly haunted hotel in Denver Colorado. White was about to sue Hall because in his last bestseller, "The Resort", a character resembled him and detailed the unpleasant circumstances surrounding the tragic death of his young son. It transpires that Hall had invited Jordan to spend a weekend with him at the hotel along with three other people who all had good reason to hate him. They are a psychic, a horror film star and an astrologer all of whom Hall had exposed things about in his book that they would rather not have people know. On the night of the murder, Hall played a series of tasteless practical jokes upon his guests and it is clear to Perry that any of them apart from his client had strong motives to kill him. In addition, certain actions taken by Hall lead Mason to believe that either he committed suicide or anticipated his own death. For instance he took out a large insurance policy, allowed his car insurance to lapse and recently changed his will leaving everything to his loyal personal assistant Andrew Lloyd. But why did he invite four people who all had reason to hate him to stay with him? "It is almost as if he wanted to be killed" as Mason says. Meanwhile, Mason's PI Paul Drake has developed a friendship with the hotel manager Susan Warrenfield. It becomes apparent that somebody is trying to drive her out of her mind because a series of sinister happenings have occurred such as a painting seemingly coming to life and chasing her down the hall. Drake vows to solve this mystery because as she witnessed Hall falling to his death, it could well be something she saw or heard and forgot about on that night that could be the motive for somebody trying to get her out of the way... Between 1985 and 1993 Raymond Burr returned to his most famous TV role as Erle Stanley Gardner's top defense attorney Perry Mason no less than 26 times in a series of feature length made-for-TV movies with considerable success. The Case Of The Sinister Spirit was the fifth entry in the series and on the whole despite its flaws is quite an enjoyable one. The customary twist ending works better here than in some of its successors and to those seeing it for the first time it will come as completely unexpected. Burr's courtroom scenes are more engaging than usual thanks to the excellent battle between Burr's Mason and David Ogden Steirs' prosecuting attorney Michael Reston who was arguably the best successor to William Talman's DA Hamilton Burger in the original fifties and sixties Perry Mason series. Reston gets to put in quite a few objections here amid the stunned gasps of the spectators in the public gallery shocked at Mason's latest revelation. But this time the judge is more sympathetic to Mason. For instance, Mason puts a psychiatrist on the stand whom he had hired to study Hall's books and life history as to give a professional opinion as to David Hall's state of mind. When he reveals that it seems likely that Hall was about to take his own life Reston objects as it is speculation only to be overruled by the judge. But he then boxes clever by putting Hall's secretary, Andrew Lloyd, on the stand and as he was the person who had the most contact with Hall he asks him if he ever once talked about committing suicide and he replies "never". Having shot Mason's case down in flames he turns to Mason with a look of triumph. Sadly after the first dozen or so episodes, Steirs was replaced by a succession of less interesting attorneys who were played by actors who had little to do but merely fill their poorly written roles and the battle between the defense and prosecutors was sorely missed draining the courtroom sequences of a lot of suspense. The main flaw with the film is its emphasis on old haunted house clichés such as paintings coming to life, dummies emerging from coffins in candlelit rooms and chandeliers crashing down make it seem like a tired rip off of practically every old horror movie in the book even though the creepy atmosphere in the hotel scenes is fairly well cranked up. Good performances from Burr as Mason and Stiers in one of his best turns as the prosecuting attorney while guest star Robert Stack is suitably assured in his role as the man framed for the crime. Dwight Schultz scores in his role as the murdered man's loyal secretary and Kim Delaney is suitably vulnerable and fragile as the haunted Susan Warrenfield. Katt is okay as Paul Drake but it isn't his best turn as Mason's right hand man by a long way and Barbara Hale has very little to do as Della Street. But aside from these flaws this is still a very entertaining entry in this long running series.

• Perry Mason Versus A Ghost

  boblipton2019-02-18

  When a mean-spirited author plummets from the tower of a haunted hotel, his publisher, Robert Stack, faces trial for murder. It's a good thing he's already hired Raymond Burr playing Perry Mason for a slander suit against the author. We all know that Stack will turn out to be as innocent as all of Perry's clients are. Will Perry have a ghost confess on the witness stand? As with several other of the Perry Mason TV movies, major references are made to real-life personalities. In this case, Matthew Faison's murder victim is clearly modeled on Stephen King and the haunted hotel a reference to THE SHINING. It's a purposefully atmospheric spooky-house mystery. While I was able to see who was the murderer -- not from the clues, but from the structure of the story -- early on, his motives ultimately came as a surprise. It's not a whodunnit, it's a whydunnit with lots of red herrings.

• Clue Redeux

  gw3332019-04-10

  As I was watching this, I couldn't help but think of Clue (the movie) from two years earlier. Mr. White in the dining room and the chandelier falling and other things. I like Perry Mason in the original series, I find the movies somewhat lacking.