THE CASE OF THE LUCKY LEGS

US, 1935, 77 minutes, Black and white.
Warren William, Timothy Tobin, Patricia Ellis, Lyle Talbot, Allen Jenkins, Barton Mc Laine, Porter Hall, Henry O’ Neill.
Directed by Archie. L. Mayo.

This is Perry Mason story from a novel by Earl Stanley Gardner. Warren William starred in a series of four small-budget films in the mid 1930s as Perry Mason, with Genevieve Tobin as Della Street.

For audiences accustomed to imagining Perry Mason like Raymond Burr and Della Street like Barbara Hale, the last film in the series will be something of a shock - marriage.

Warren William, romantic hero in some of the 1930s films, although also capable of being a suave villain, is tall and thin. He is also something of a comedian, as a character, in the way William plays Perry Mason. We first came across him on his office floor, suffering from a hangover, trying to placate a potential client, with Della fussing about him although being in charge.

He doesn’t go to court but serves as a detective, even quicker than Sherlock Holmes in working out hypotheses and gathering the facts and acting on them, better than the police, as admitted by the district attorney, Henry O’Neill?, irritating the chief of police, Barton Mc Laine. He is always flirtatious with the ladies.

The film opens with a beauty competition with a rogue sponsoring the competition and then absconding with the money made from sponsorships. This is particularly irritating for the organiser, Porter Hall, who is also in love with the girl who wins the competition, going to Perry Mason to track her down as well as the culprit. By certain ironies and coincidences and Perry Mason acting on his detective instincts, he reveals that this man is actually the murderer.

Mason is aided by his own detective, Spuds, 1a hen-picked husband, played by Allen Jenkins.

There are a number of suspicious women, especially those were victimised by the competition, and a righteous doctor who was in love with the winner of the competition but strenuously disapproved of her participating – and it is his instrument that is the murder weapon.

In the short running time, there are a number of incidents and plot, with Mason enjoying himself, carrying on really, more than a touch of the smug, and, of course, living to solve another case.

The other films in the series were The Case of the Howling Dog, The Case of the Curious Bride, The Case of the Velvet Claws – in which Perry Mason and Della Street marry!