The Case of the Black Cat (1936)

This move is geared towards the baby boomers. Middle age adults might enjoy it and maybe even the 30 plus crowd. I like the character, Perry Mason. Richard Cortez does a good job playing Perry Mason. However, my favorite Perry Mason is Raymond Burr. The movie moves quickly, but not too fast to follow. It is amazing how the black cat fits into the murder mystery. I got tired of hearing about waffles and melted butter. It must have been mentioned close to a dozen times within the short movie. The murder mystery has a good length at just over one hour. I can sit down and relax, watch the movie, and enjoy popcorn. The movie is easily forgotten in ten minutes and I am ready to see the next movie with a clear head. I give it 4 thumbs up.

Warren William, as affable a Perry Mason as one is likely to find in film, is replaced by Ricardo Cortez, and, while I prefer William, Cortez does a charming job making his Mason successful. Why they didn't make more films with him as Mason I shall never know. Anyhow, this time Mason is working for a crotchety, crippled millionaire who believes he will die soon amidst a cast of relatives "devoted" to him in that death way. We get a butler with a spotted white/gray cat(no black cat here - you think they would have done something about that huh?)who walks with a cane and has the cat who must be looked after even, by the words of the will, after the millionaire is dead. We get a young niece who is disinherited and starts a waffle shop(No, I am not making this up), and a couple other nephews both wanting money and a nurse with the name of a lounge singer - Louise De Voe. Cortez has style and grace and charm. Many of the supporting cast do very nice turns as well with much-worked character actor harry Davenport as Peter Dexter - old moneybags and George Rosener as the caretaker giving better-than-average performances. The female lead Jane Bryan is both lovely and talented. The gal playing Della Street unfortunately has all the personality of a pencil. Shame about that as the chemistry between Mason and her should be electric rather than static. This Mason film has solid acting, a good dose of humour and intriguing plot twists, and at its core a purrrfect mystery.

Because no actor has ever been more closely associated with his character than Raymond Burr as Perry Mason, modern audiences are often unaware that Earl Stanley Gardner's books and character predate the television series by over twenty years.It is unfortunate indeed that the actor most commonly associated with the role of Perry Mason in the 1930's is Warren William, not at all attractive and with an annoying tendency to play Mr. Mason as a less-than-scrupulous drunken buffoon of whom one marvels he was even able to find his way out of a gin joint, let alone find a murderer. With each successive Perry Mason film, Mr. William's portrayal grew more drunken and buffoonish, probably an attempt to cop the fantastically popular Thin Man of the day.Sorry folks, but Ricardo Cortez IS Perry Mason. In the only Mason film to cast Cortez in the lead role, Mr. Cortez ruins the role for all others and particularly blows Mr. Warren out of the water. Cortez is everything Mason is supposed to be; beautiful, rich and elegant, sophisticated and brilliant. No drunken buffoon here.As for the story, I remain clueless why the American version of this film was re-titled "The Case of the Black Cat". The book, and the episode of the television series some 25 year later, were named "The Case of the CARETAKER'S Cat", and even the cat that appears in the 1936 movie is not black. Aside from this peculiarity, this is a great story and well worth the watch. Easily the best of the Perry Mason movies produced during this time period, it compares favorably to the Philo Vance and Thin Man serials of its era.

I admit that I am a hopeless Perry Mason fan. When I was a girl, our family gathered around the TV set every Friday to watch Raymond Burr outwit Hamilton Burger. So when I had a chance to buy the DVD for this movie from e-bay I did it thinking it would be a B movie and that was that. I was very agreeably surprised. Ricardo Cortez made a very, very charming Perry Mason. My first introduction to Mr. Cortez was in an old Bette Davis movie wherein he played a snaky villain. We forget that in those days they had such a thing as good acting so I just thought he was the quiet, sneaky type. But in this Perry Mason movie he is utterly adorable. And it has a pretty fair plot too with quite a neat surprise at the end. I agree with the other comment I too do not understand why they did not make other movies with Mr. Cortez in this role.