IMDb > A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Grimacing Governor (1994) (TV)

A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Grimacing Governor (1994) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
6.3/10   80 votes
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Director:
Max Tash
Writers:
Robert Schlitt (written by)
Erle Stanley Gardner (characters creator)
Contact:
View company contact information for A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Grimacing Governor on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
9 November 1994 (USA) more
Genre:
Crime | Drama | Mystery more
Plot:
Perry's secretary Della and private investigator/lawyer Ken go to visit an old friend, rancher and famous lawyer... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
User Comments:
Where Was The Security? more (5 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Hal Holbrook ... Wild Bill McKenzie
Barbara Hale ... Della Street

William R. Moses ... Ken Malansky

John Spencer ... Al Rhinehart

Gregg Henry ... John Orlando
Bonnie Bartlett ... Rosemary Sutter

Macon McCalman ... Dan Dixon

Kim Johnston Ulrich ... Karen Richards
Elyssa Davalos ... Violet Moore
Pato Hoffmann ... Sgt. Whitehorse
Angela Dohrmann
Fran Bennett ... Judge Donna Andrews

Gregory Scott Cummins

David Selburg

Tony Longo ... Will
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
96 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Stereo
Certification:
UK:PG | Australia:M
Filming Locations:
Denver, Colorado, USA
Company:
Dean Hargrove Productions more

Fun Stuff

Movie Connections:
Follows Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love (1987) (TV) more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful.
Where Was The Security?, 26 October 2008
5/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

It's sad that Hal Holbrook's character of Wild Bill McKenzie was a rush creation job to fulfill the commitment of NBC for Perry Mason stories after Raymond Burr died. He could have been successful had he been launched on his own, might have been given a fair chance to succeed.

Barbara Hale and William R. Moses, vacationing on lawyer/rancher Hal Holbrook's spread get drafted into helping with another case. This one involves no less than political assassination and I'm betting would have been on the front page of every paper in the country.

Kim Johnston Ulrich is the daughter of former McKenzie colleague, Ken Kercheval whom she believes was murdered and the man who is now governor of the state, James Brolin, is responsible. When she goes to visit him, one evening, the governor is found stabbed to death with a letter opener. Naturally she's looking good for it and naturally comes she gets Holbrook and the team for her day in court.

A couple of things struck me about this episode which you know had to have been written for Raymond Burr and would have made more sense given the Erle Stanley Gardner parameters he had to operate under and which the audience here would have been expecting for Wild Bill McKenzie. At one point Brolin's wife Deborah Raffin asks him how he could defend such an evil woman as Ulrich and he replies something on the order that since he's now rich enough, he defends only whom he wants and whom he believes are innocent.

That was certainly true of Perry Mason. I'm betting neither Mason or McKenzie ever got a mob hit man off on a homicide. At least once they could pick and choose clients. Still it does violate at least one canon of legal ethics that EVERYONE is entitled to a defense.

The Case of the Grimacing Governor had many generations of performers from old to new Hollywood in the cast. The old Hollywood was represented by movie legend Tony Curtis who has a small role as a very rich hoodlum with fingers in lots of pies. In an even smaller role is Ryan Phillippe as a banquet waiter whose testimony discredits so called eye witness testimony for the prosecution. This was before Phillippe hit movie star status.

With all that though I do have to wonder where was the governor's security during all this. On second thought we in New York lost a governor because he managed to ditch his trappings of security for a little indiscretion that cost him his office. By the way I'm still not convinced Elliott Spitzer ought to have resigned.

But that's the plot of another film.

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