A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Jealous Jokester (1995) Online

Lawyer Bill McKenzie's niece works as an assistant to sitcom star Josie Joplin. He flies to see her when she is accused of having an affair with Josie's husband, Toby. Ivy assures her Uncle that the story and an on-set fight are all part of a PR stunt. However when Ivy is framed for Josie's murder, Bill returns to help defend her. Meanwhile Ken is sent to try and find the driver of a jeep seen speeding away from Josie's hotel just before the murder, aided (and hindered) by a National Informer photographer desperate for a big story.

With the death of burr the series tried to keep the formula alive with the shell of the cast and the same basic stories. For most of the `Wild Bill' episodes it sort of worked. Here the story is reasonable but again it needs to have some link for Bill rather than just have him defend someone like Mason could. The story is OK but the courtroom scenes lack the fireworks (comparatively anyway) that mason brought. Here Bill seems to expose people's weaknesses then the scenes just end in order to keep the person alive as a suspect. The end is a better twist than usual but is no less illogical or out-of-the-blue than others.

Holbrook is good in the lead and makes his own character rather than aping Mason. Moses is his usual self and does all the action stuff reasonably well. Hale has clearly decided enough is enough and not-so-subtly removes herself from the series and hands over to Taylor who does OK (but replacing Della in the movies doesn't mean much in terms of hard work). This casting was of interest to me because Taylor had starred as a different character ten years early in Perry Mason Returns. The support cast is filled with reasonably well known faces who all do a TVM sufficient job. Cannon is good and is supported by the unmistakable Roberts (Annie Hall etc) and, amusingly enough, David Rasche (Sledge Hammer).

Overall this is an average entry to the series and was (at time of writing) the last one they made. It's not that it's bad but the ghost of burr looms large over it. Areas where Mason was weak are forgotten and the parts of the formula that he did well and now made to look weak.

The last of the "Perry Mason" mysteries is a real treat. Hal Holbrook once again portrays maverick lawyer Bill McKenzie with style in a tale although formalic to the extreme contains more than one surprising turn. With Holland Taylor joining the cast as McKenzie's assistant, it looks like the producers were hoping to continue the series under a new name.

The last of the contracted Perry Mason television movies is The Case Of The Jealous Jokester where Dyan Cannon plays television mom of Harriet Nelson family values with a comic twist and who is one real hellcat off the stage. Mean, manipulative, and vindictive to all around her, Cannon is probably one woman who really did deserve her fate. The problem is that the perpetrator fixed a good alibi by framing the niece of Wild Bill McKenzie played her by Victoria Jackson.

Hal Holbrook's character was an interesting one and I'm sorry the series wasn't continued with his name on it. I believe that the public just didn't accept him as a Perry Mason lite. Probably because of contracts, the films had to be presented as Perry Mason mysteries. It would have been better had they even just dropped that identifiable theme music, used Barbara Hale and William R. Moses in their characters and simply said that Perry had died.

Barbara Hale was going to retire in any event, in fact you can see she's breaking in Holland Taylor to fill her familiar role. Billy Moses would have no doubt continued as lawyer/investigator Ken Malansky with the Wild Bill McKenzie law firm had they continued the series.

It's not a bad film, but the McKenzie character, maybe because of legal problems was sold wrong.

"The Case of the Jealous Jokester" may not have been a remarkable movie, but it deserves attention because it represents the end of what was basically a 38-year run for the Perry Mason series, as it was. By the time this movie ran, Ray Collins (Lt. Tragg) had been dead for 30 years; William Tallman (Hamilton Burger), 27 years; William Hopper (Paul Drake), 25 years; and Raymond Burr, 1½ years. And Barbara Hale herself seemed to be bowing out. It was as well that the movie franchise ended.

That said, Hal Holbrook is fun to watch, and I agree he should have had his own series, rather then try to fill in Raymond Burr's shoes. However, things are what they are. It is clear that, with this production, the end had come on this series. And it is reflected when the star of a TV series is murdered. Reminds me of the 1966 series finale of "Perry Mason." And remember, there was a time in the sixth season of the original series, when Raymond Burr was unavailable because of health reasons. So this TV movie seems not so unusual.

Anyway, it has its place as the final installment of a series that dated back to September 1957.

**SPOILERS** Being paged by what she thought was her boss the star of the very popular Josie TV Show Josie Joplin's, Dayan Cannon, her associate producer Ivy West, Susan Diol,rushes over to Josie's suite at the Belmont Hotel only to find Josie dead. Ivy is herself belted and knocked out cold by whoever was the person who murdered Josie. Being on the scene with no alibi but that she was called by the murder victim to come over Ivy is arrested and booked for Josie Joplin's murder.

Wild Bill McKenzie, Hal Holbrook, who's not only one of the nations top defense attorney but also Ivy's uncle is summoned to her defense. right away he spots an opening to get his niece off with the fact that the call to the police, over a violent fight in Josie's hotel room, and the time the police got there finding a dead Josie and a barley conscious Ivy was 14 minutes. Not only more then enough time for the real killer to have may his getaway but proof that Ivy, by innocently being on the scene, of not being responsible for the murder but a pasty who was set up to the take the rap for it.

Leaving no stone unturned Wild Bill has his good friend Perry Mason's, hot shot private eye Ken Malansky, William R. Moses, check out who's license plate it was that was seen by Ivy driving away from the hotel the night Josie Joplin was found murdered. It turned out to belong to this masseuse who worked at a Malibu health spa named Martin Kessler, John Laughlin.

Trying to get a statement from Kessler Malansky gets whacked and almost run over but lucky for him he get's the license plate of a young woman who was on the scene taking pictures Later Ken tracks down the woman who turned out to be Pat McDonland, Khrystyne Haje, a top reporter and photographer for the well known supermarket tabloid The Nationial Informer. Working as a team with Pat, who's looking for the big scoop, Malansky uncovers a maze of leads that all point to Josie. Josie was so nasty and vindictive towards everyone that she had any business with that those who would have had a reason to do her in amounted to almost the entire state of California including Ivy West.

Wild Bill mixing the legal work with his own brand of inciting and aggravating those whom he's interrogating eventually found things out about the sweet and lovable Josie that made he realize that she had a lot of people who would have gladly did her in. Wild Bill in his uncouth behavior got people good and mad with her actions but the trick was to get guard down of who was, of dozens of suspects, as the person who murdered Josie. The clues to Josie's murder lead to a Malibu drug dealer of the rich and famous a stuck-up and strung out co-star of the Josie Show who just happened to be the drug dealers best customers.

The was the last of the Perry Mason TV movies even though it's star Raymond Burr passed away some two years before the show was finally put to rest. Hal Holbrook as defense attorney Wild Bill McKenzie was a good replacement for the late Mr. Burr and didn't try to imitate the title character. Holbrook was very affective with his country or farm boy charm wits and common sense in his going out on his own and mixing with unsavory and dangerous characters in order to dig up evidence.

When sitcom star Dyan Cannon is murdered, co-star Susan Diol is on trial for murder. It's a good thing that her uncle, Hal Holbrook is in town to check up on her in his last appearance in this Perry Mason Mystery TV mystery.

With the death two years earlier of Raymond Burr, producers Fred SIlverman and Dean Hargrove had tried to keep the series going. They kept Barbara Hale and William Moses from the series and insisted that Perry was out of town. In this one, Mr. Moses is around to serve as Holbrook's leg man, but the ailing Miss Hale has only a brief appearance before flying off to join Mr. Burr -- she would live another 22 years to the age of 94. Other well-known actors include Tony Roberts as Miss Cannon co-star and widower, Victoria Jackson and Sal Viscuso.

Although Holbrook is engaging in his homespun character, the series clearly misses Burr. He had played Mason first in 1957 for ten years in the hour-long series, and then in 26 TV movies from 1986 through his death in 1993. Although this is a good mystery, with the usual structure preserved, it just wasn't the same.

THE CASE OF THE JEALOUS JOKESTER is the very last of the Perry Mason TV movies and was made after the death of star Raymond Burr. Fellow old-timer Hal Halbrook stepped into the protagonist role after Burr's death, playing a rancher lawyer with an interest in helping the wrongfully accused.

The mystery this time around involves the murder of an acerbic TV star with all the trappings of the Hollywood industry surrounding her. Suspects include her philandering husband, her shady agent, and put-upon co-stars. This film follows the usual format of featuring the set up in the first half followed by a string of interviews with the main suspects while William R. Moses does his action man stuff. The finale is the court case itself.

Generally THE CASE OF THE JEALOUS JOKESTER is a likable production, directed with an eye on an easy pace by Vincent McEveety who had plenty of experience having directed the revamped Columbo episodes. Some of the supporting actors give shrill and overstated performances but others are fine and overall this was a nice end for the series.