Overview: Featuring some of the legendary attorney's most dramatic cases, the 'Perry Mason Movie Collection-Volume 2' (starring Raymond Burr as the iconic titular character) is packed with six made-for-TV movies (1987-1989); such as: 'The Case Of The Scandalous Scoundrel,' 'The Case Of The Avenging Ace,' 'The Case Of The Lady In The Lake,' 'The Case Of The Lethal Lesson,' 'The Case Of The Musical Murder,' and finally 'The Case Of The All-Star Assassin.'

DVD Verdict: Before we progress onto the made-for-TV movies contained here in this two-disc set, let's find out more about the late, great Raymond Burr. He was a Canadian actor primarily known for his title roles in this television drama ('Perry Mason') along with that of 'Ironside.'

His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain! He actually won two Emmy Awards in 1959 and 1961 for the role of 'Perry Mason,' which he played for nine seasons between 1957 and 1966. His second hit series, 'Ironside,' earned him six Emmy nominations, and two Golden Globe nominations. He is also widely known for his role as the murderer in 'Rear Window,' of course.

OK, onwards and upwards, and first on the list here is 'The Case Of The Scandalous Scoundrel' (1987) which finds the famous defense attorney almost a victim himself here of blackmail. The blackmailer in question is the scandalous scoundrel in this case played by Robert Guillaume.

Guillaume is the publisher of the National Informer one of the more notorious supermarket rags who's got himself a blackmail racket and the means to make good for threats of exposure.

When Perry gets retained by a potential victim, Guillaume actually goes to try and get dirt on him and Della Street. I mean, come on people, we are talking about two very consenting adults who are way past the age of consent. That part I found just a tad too ridiculous so this particular entry in the Mason film series.

But this turns to murder when Guillaume is killed with a blunt object and of course given his profession there are a lot of suspects. The police of course focus in on Susan Wilder a disgruntled former employee of the Informer and she retains Raymond Burr as all innocent folks do.

The three leading blackmail candidates seem to be General Yaphett Kotto, international banker Rene Enriquez and cheating wife Morgan Brittany and her older husband George Grizzard and all give a good account of themselves.

David Ogden Stiers is the worthy successor as DA Michael Reston to the famous Hamilton Burger. But strangely enough James McEachin who appeared in a few Mason films is cast as a caterer here. He has a key role in the homicide in fact though he's not aware of it. I think I can safely say he wasn't the culprit. I guess the writers thought he had not firmly established his presence as Lt. Brock yet.

In truth, 'The Case Of The Avenging Ace' (1988) is one of the more far fetched episodes. One where the murderer and the individual behind the murders will do anything, kill anybody to keep a particular family scandal from seeing the light of day.

If you remember in 'Perry Mason Returns,' Raymond Burr was an appellate judge who resigned the bench to defend Della Street from a murder charge. This film begins with a flashback to those times on the bench where he votes to sustain a conviction for murder on procedural grounds of Larry Wilcox, a decorated Air Force colonel who allegedly murdered a woman he was allegedly involved with.

Fast forward to the present when a witness has come forward who on the day of the hearing reneges on his testimony under threat. Then Wilcox is busted out of jail and later the recanting witness is shot to death and Wilcox is found with murder weapon in hand.

This far fetched set of circumstances would defeat any lesser lawyer, but we're dealing with Perry Mason. You know this top gun will eventually be free of all charges, including the original murder that sent him up.

'The Case Of The Lady In The Lake' (1988) finds America's most formidable defense attorney taking on David Hasselhoff as a client who is being accused of the murder of his wife. Hasselhoff is a retired tennis player now just hanging on in the tennis circles and is thought to have just married wife Doran Clark for her money. Everyone that is but family attorney John Ireland who retains Perry on behalf of Hasselhoff.

There's another part to this story, when they were teenagers Clark and her sister were kidnapped and thrown in the lake by the suspect just before a shootout with the local sheriff and his posse. The suspect was killed, the sister drowned and her body never recovered, and Clark was traumatized. It took her years to resume a normal life. And now her body is thought to be in the same lake.

The cases are indeed connected in a complicated scheme worked out by the murderer and an accomplice. The ending is a bit of a variation on the Perry Mason format. But Mason fans can rest assured that Hasselhoff didn't kill his wife. Perry just doesn't defend the guilty.

With an intricate twist in the plot and outcome, 'The Case of the Lady in the Lake' is one of the better Mason films. Good, but don't expect Raymond Chandler either. Oh, and it's alsi William Katt's final appearance as Drake.

'The Case Of The Lethal Lesson' (1989) marked the first time that William R. Moses makes an appearance. He's young law school student Ken Malansky and they meet as Perry is giving a lecture to the participants of a moot court of soon to be graduates. In future stories he would take over the job of Mason's law associate and investigative legman.

One of my favorite ironic moments in the Perry Mason series occurs in this film, Perry Mason: The Case of the Lethal Lesson. Raymond Burr gives a very good speech to the group about juries, people bringing all kinds of baggage from their every days lives to a jury. They're no better or worse than any other average group of folks you can get out of a phone book. But that as a jury they become a noble body and one should never demean them in any way.

It was a great moment of eloquence for Raymond Burr, one of the best in his career as an actor. It ought to be mandatory in law schools in fact. Yet we are talking about Perry Mason who never let a case get that far to a jury, at least not in any of the movies or the couple of hundred episodes from the original series that I recall.

Anyway among the participants of the moot court is John Allen Nelson, the spoiled son of Brian Keith who is an old friend of Burr's. He's a really rotten kid who's dad has used money and influence to get him out of trouble before. During moot court Moses threatens him and later goes out looking to him some bodily harm. But someone beat him to it when he finds the body and he's discovered with the corpse of the late Mr. Nelson. Of course Moses turns to Perry Mason for help.

For fans of the old television series, the character of Ken Malansky actually does have a precedent. For a couple of seasons Perry Mason had an actor named Karl Held play young lawyer David Gideon whom he also defended in a murder trial. Held popped up in a dozen or so episodes after that.

Anyway you know this kid had a host of people who didn't like him in his study group and others. But Perry ferrets out the killer in his usual manner.

William R. Moses joined the TV film series after that as William Katt as Paul Drake, Jr. departed for a series Top of the Hill that didn't last. Neither Moses or Katt have ever lacked for work however though they both are now forty somethings.

It's a good episode and fans of Billy Moses consider it a landmark.

'The Case Of The Musical Murder' (1989) a musical show is in town, but all the cast are under heavy criticism from their director. One of the crew gets fired and leaves full of threats. Later that night the director is murdered and the main suspect is the same crew member. However Perry Mason witnessed the man drunk on the other side of town at the time of the murder. He stands up as a witness for the defence but is discredited as he had taken sedatives just before. He decides to defend the man instead and employs Ken Malansky to find out what the night watchman was doing at the time of the murder.

From the opening set-up this feels like it's going to be just the same as all the Mason films - which I don't mind as I like the formula. However soon after this the plot adds lots of things that are different, slightly, from the norm. We have Mason being the suspects' alibi in a scene where he is very rude to a nurse, we have all the other suspect's having overly complicated subplots behind them and we have Amy tagging along (again) on Ken's investigation after watching him defend a guilty pervert in a case from his new law practice.

These different things are the problem here because few of them work. The early scenes with Mason as a witness slow the film down and leaves less room for the full plot. The subplots are too complex (and depressing at times) and don't act as suspects but create other stories that it leaves untold. Mason himself is too grumpy and the final twist is even more unlikely and impossible to see than usual - it is just plain complex here and the final scene loses some impact as a result. Amy is a regular by this stage (being the sidekick for a few other movies) but she doesn't work - and suggestions that she is Ken's `Della' are laughable. And what's with the running gag that no-one can pronounce Malansky? Never had a problem before.

Burr is not his usual self - I don't know why he played it so grumpy here and got frustrated so often but it drags the film down. Hale is OK but has nothing to do. Moses and Paul don't work well at all together here. Her sidekick role has worked the odd time but here it's forced and she is very annoying. The support cast are OK and the `oh, look it's ...' face this time is Jerry Orbach from Law & Order.

Overall this has too many elements that don't work and the film takes one step too many away from the straight simple formula by adding to it unsuccessfully. As a Mason fan even I found this to be way below par for the series.

And finally comes 'The Case Of The All-Star Assassin' (1989) America's number one defense attorney gets involved in defending Jason Beghe, a star hockey player who is accused of shooting down Pernell Roberts, a George Steinbrenner like owner of both a hockey and basketball team in Denver. He's also got an interest in tennis in the person of tennis pro, Shari Belafonte.

I'm sure there are any number of folks who wouldn't mind seeing Mr. Steinbrenner done in and it's the same with Pernell Roberts. The reason that Beghe is zeroed in on as a suspect is because the murder weapon is found in his car and after Beghe storms out of deposition with his attorney Ken Malansky yelling threats against Roberts's person. Actually the only thing Beghe did was go out on a terrific drunk, the same as Jim Metzler did in the previous Mason film.

It was nice if ever so briefly to see Billy Moses actually doing lawyer like work if in fact he did then turn the case over to Raymond Burr and resume his sleuth role. This episode marked the farewell appearance of Alexandra Paul as Billy's girl Friday, Amy. I believe she started in Baywatch the following year.

'The Case of The All Star Assassin' is not a bad entry in the Mason series, but not the best either. Burr gets a rather colorless female ADA in Valerie Mahaffey as an opponent here. As for the culprit, all I can say that until the very end, this suspect is probably the one least focused on during the film. These are all Full Screen Presentations (1.33:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.