Film Reviews by Ralph

I'm a big fan of the Perry Mason books: tightly written, idiosyncratic, tense, full of twists and, in most cases, genuine whodunnits. And one positive from this series is that a number of them are now back in print.

However, the style and characters from this series are nothing like those from the book, and if you go into the series hoping for that you'll be disappointed.

However, if this series has been called something else and stood on its own right, I'd be saying its a very well acted, well staged, story exploring the tawdry underside of the Los Angeles of the 30s. John Lithgow is excellent (as usual) and Juliet Rylance gives Della Street more depth than the original novels.