Perry Mason: The Case of the Lady in the Lake (1988 TV Movie) User Reviews

The Drowned Wife

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 3 August 2008]

Perry Mason: The Case of the Lady in the Lake 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.

Unspectacular but likable Mason fare

[LisaLisa85 · 7/10 · 17 October 2006]

Despite the seemingly self-explanatory title, there's a little quirk behind this mystery.

A mild but reasonably enjoyable TVM in the Perry Mason series, this features a couple of famous faces from the 80s era in which it was filmed, including David Hassellhoff (between Knight Rider and Baywatch days) and John Beck (fomerly of Dallas and Santa Barbera, and more recently of Walker:Texas Ranger fame) in addition to the late Raymond Burr in his role of Perry Mason.

15 years earlier, twin sisters Sarah and Amy Wingate were kidnapped and boated out onto a lake near the mining federation headquarters owned by their father, and thrown into the lake by their kidnapper... The kidnapper was killed in a gun battle with the Sheriff's posse soon after, a posse which included former reserve deputy sheriff-turned-mining company president Doug Vickers (played by John Beck), and old friend of Sarah's father who took over the operations management side of the company following Sarah's father's death with the company ownership itself having been inherited by Sarah (who, unlike her sister, survived the kidnapping ordeal). After some pains as she tries to fully come to terms with the tragedy, life returns to normal for Sarah, largely thanks to her new husband, Billy Travis (Hassellhoff), a retired tennis pro now trying to set up a new ski resort, a development which sees Sarah considering the possibility of closing the mining company down, and going into partnership with Billy.

Then Sarah disappears, and the Sheriff receives an anonymous call telling him that she has been murdered and that she is lying dead in the lake. All the clues point to Billy Travis, and he is subsequently arrested and put on trial for his wife's murder - having himself received an anonymous phone call, he is found rowing a boat out of the lake with Sarah's blood and clothing in it and a napkin with his name on it inside the boat. The town, all of whom believed that Billy only married Sarah for her money in the first place, are quick to point the finger of blame at him, mainly out of convenience and dislike towards Billy, but also having seen him publicly argue with Sarah the night before.

But Billy knows that he did not murder Sarah. And and along with Perry (defending him at the trial) and sidekick Paul Drake (played for the last time by William Katt in this film) he tries to find out who really committed the crime.

There are a number of suspicious questions left unanswered following Sarah's disappearance. If Sarah really was murdered and dumped in the lake, then why is her body not there now? Why has Billy's brother Frank done a runner, and who is he running from? What was Billy's former lover, Lisa Blake, doing back in town on the night of the murder, and why has she now disappeared? Why are Doug Vickers, Sarah's cousin Skip Wingate, and Sarah's personal attendant Ms. Constance Chainey all so quick to blame Billy, and yet at the same time so reluctant to testify at Billy's trial? And is it just a horrible coincidence that Sarah has been murdered in the same waters as her twin sister was 15 years before, or is someone deliberately trying to repeat history?

As the case progresses, it soon becomes apparent to all involved that there's far more to the case than had initially met the eye. As Mason and Drake get closer to the truth, they realise that the real murderer is only not working in tandem with an accomplice, but that, as they close in, the two culprits will go to all lengths to stop them unearthing the real truth - with shocking results...

Good performances from David Hassellhoff, the very under-rated John Beck and Raymond Burr make this a watchable movie that starts off very well prior falling into mediocrity in places due to weak script and lack of plot before the film eventually reaches an intense and intriguing climax towards the end.

One of Burr's more accomplished comeback movies as ace defence lawyer Perry Mason.

[jamesraeburn2003 · 7/10 · 17 January 2018]

Billy Travis (David Hasselhoff) is a retired tennis champion who has married the wealthy mine owner Sarah Wingate (Doran Clark). Sarah is haunted by disturbing childhood memories of she and her sister being kidnapped some fifteen years ago in which the latter was murdered, her body dumped in a lake and never found. Everyone around Sarah disapproves of her marriage to Billy believing that he is only after her money. They include her idle cousin, Skip, who has a well paid job with her mining company; only he does not appear to do any work and just takes the salary. The president of the firm, Doug Vickers (John Beck), was very close to Sarah's father and was a deputy sheriff at the time of the kidnapping and helped trap one of the kidnappers. Out of gratitude, Vickers got the top job on the mining firm. Like Skip and others, he resents Billy and feels that he has been persuading Sarah to sell the mine which would mean he would be out of a job. In addition, Billy's brother, Frank (George Deloy), had a motive because he was heavily in debt due to his gambling addiction and was forever pestering Billy to bail him out. After the murder, he vanished. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) has plenty of suspects to probe when Sarah is murdered and her body dumped in the same lake where her sister drowned all those years ago. Billy is the prime suspect and Perry is convinced he is innocent. But who is trying to create the impression that history is repeating itself by killing Sarah and disposing of her body in the lake?

One of Raymond Burr's more accomplished revival movies as the world's best defence attorney Perry Mason. Skilfully directed by the talented Ron Satlof, a series veteran whose other TV work included episodes of the classic Quincy series, who exploits some attractive location work to maximum emotional and dramatic effect - the beautiful, yet dark and sinister lake, the mountainous countryside of Colorado and the Wingate's beautiful lodge house. Everybody in the film seems untrustworthy and has something to hide and their supposed concern for the vulnerable Sarah's welfare only seems to be to protect their own material interests. You will have fun working out which one of them did it and the film's twist ending is generally well built up to with all the plot turns and twists leading into one logical whole so that it seems credible in the audience's mind and that adds to the fun. Burr is on fine fettle as Mason and his grilling of the witnesses - "Isn't it true?" repeated several times over - is effective in the sense Perry commands great authority and respect in the courtroom. David Hasselhoff is very good as the accused man and it makes a refreshing change from seeing him in Knight Rider and Baywatch. On the downside, some of the supporting cast is very weak and their performances range from the competent to the barely passable as was the case with some of the other latter day Mason movies.

This, along with most of the other Perry Mason TVM's, is often repeated on satellite TV, but finding them on DVD is quite difficult in Britain and can only be obtained via European imports which are Region 2.

A solid if unspectacular entry in the Mason TVM series

[bob the moo · 2 March 2004]

Billy is a retired tennis player who has moved into resort building with his wealthy wife Sara. When she is found drowned out in the lake, Billy is charged as he had the most to gain and all clues point to him. Mason agrees to defend Billy and begins by looking into her past and a kidnapping incident on the lake as a child. Meanwhile Drake tries to track down Billy's old girlfriend who has quit her job and gone missing.

Boasting a `big' star role for Knight Rider and Baywatch star David Hasselhoff, this films actually is quite lacking in terms of plotting. The set up seems quite deliberately to hark back to an event in the past to the point that you know it must be tied up with what's coming. Even though this is obvious, it is still impossible to guess the killer - and Mason's `isn't it true' is quite a stretch and should have been shouted down by the DA so full was it of conjecture! Mason never really gets to grips with the characters involved and even Drake's section is dull and it's clear that we're not meant to really know what he's going to find until the very end.

The cast are pretty average. Burr is reasonable assured in the role but Katt is starting to look tired - he brings nothing to the party in this film apart from the usual stuff. Hale is underused although Hasselhoff is good in his minor role - or at least as good as he usually is (I'll leave you to your own opinion). The rest of the support cast basically fail to really make an impression and there are a handful of women with 80's clothes and haircuts who really look alike and don't stand out.

Overall this will satisfy Mason fans but will certainly not win over any new fans to the series. The plot is not great, even by the standards of the series. While it is still worth a watch if you are a fan, I must admit that I wasn't ever really totally won over by this film.

Dark Tides

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 25 May 2011]

***SPOILERS*** Very unusual or one of a kind Perry Mason Mystery Movie or even Perry Mason 1957-1966 black & white TV episode in that the body or corpse of the victim doesn't show up until the very end of the film! Up until then your not quite sure if there was or was not a murder in the fist place!

Perry Mason,Raymond Burr, recovering from a skiing accident and gaining some 50 to 75 pounds in the process takes his good friend and mentor's, who thought Perry everything he know, Walter,John Ireland,case in defending former tennis star Billy Travis, David Hasselhoff in the suspected murder by drowning of his filthy rich wife, who among other things owns the biggest and most productive coal mine in the sate, Sara Wingate-Travis,Dorer Clark.The fact that Sara's body was never recovered doesn't keep the local D.A from inditing Billy for her murder which is a bit unusual in real life or even in the movies!

Even though the case against Billy is weak the state prosecutor assistant D.A Michael Reston, David Odgon Stiers, who hasn't won a case yet when it comes to banging heads with Perry Mason in the courtroom gives it all he's got to prove that Billy murdered his wife Sara in order to get his hands on her million all but falls apart before the movie is even over. That's with it being proved by Billy's personal physician Dr. Everett, Michael Flynn, that with his severely injured right arm he couldn't possible have rowed a boat out in the middle of the lake and dumped Sara's body in it!

***SPOILERS*** It's in fact Perry's private investigator John Drake Jr, William Katt, who after being stymied by her at ever turn finally tracks down Billy's former girlfriend Lisa Blake, Liane Langland, who's suspected by Perry and everyone watching to be Sara's real murderer that the shocking truth finally come out to who not only "Murdered" Sara but was also behind the murder also by drowning, in the very same lake, of her twin sister Amy some 15 years ago!

Justice Carries A Scale And A Sword

[boblipton · 7/10 · 5 March 2019]

Former tennis pro David Hasselhof married Doran Clark. The gossip was that he was washed up on the courts and he married her for her money. When she turns up drowned in a lake, Mr. Hasselhof winds up in a different sort of court. Good thing he's got Perry Mason as his defense lawyer. He always digs up lots of other suspects, makes witnesses recant on the stand and invariably one of them confesses to the murder.

At least, that's how the formula for Erle Stanley Gardner's lawyer-sleuth is supposed to have worked. Even on the TV series, where he tried 271 cases, he won "only" 268... I'm sure William Talman, playing Assistant District Attorney Hamilton Burger, was delirious about those three wins. What if Perry can't find someone to confess?

Perry defends a retired ex-tennis pro of murdering his wife.

[Xjayhawker · 9/10 · 8 February 2013]

David Hasselhoff never looked or acted better. Another reviewer complained about Paul Drake "losing" suspects.It isn't the job of an investigator to apprehend only to keep surveillance and monitor activities of those assigned. Also that Perry Mason was not the Perry of the late 50,s. You will not be disappointed by a Perry Mason who has been asked by John Ireland,the man that gave Perry his first job out of law school to defend Hasselhoff,the man that married his "niece". William Katt's last appearance as Paul Drake, Barbara Hale's real life son. This is one of the better entries in the Perry Mason made-for- television movies..with no real clue as to the outcome until the final quarter hour that plays out. Anyone ever see the real resemblance between Doran Clark in this episode as well as Emerald Point NAS and the ex-girlfriend of NCIS' Tony Di Noza? Although they are two different actresses, it is uncanny. You will not be disappointed by the outcome or the performances by all involved. I really liked the judge. Check it out.

Did jealousy lead to the unthinkable?

[sixpence1106 · 6/10 · 3 January 2014]

If you are a fan of Perry Mason, as I am, you would have figured that out there was something strange from the beginning of the movie. Normally Perry Mason spends his entire show defending his client and piecing together the crime and identifying the real criminal at the very end of the show. When the movie began, it seems that the killer was identified in the first few minutes of the movie. But obviously, things were not what they seemed. I was not sure what it was, but Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale seemed very flat and uninspired. At least William Katt and David Hasselhoff kept the movie alive. The ending was very interesting. I definitely did not see that coming. As a mystery the movie was worth watching, but as a "Perry Mason" movie, it was disappointing.

Very good mystery

[coltras35 · 8/10 · 17 May 2023]

They accuse a famous tennis player, who is a married to a multimillionaire, of murdering her with the intention of inheriting all his fortune. In addition, a few hours before the murder, the tennis player had been pressured by his brother to give him an important amount of money. Perry Mason defends the tennis player ...

David Hasselhoff plays the tennis player and it's an interesting role, more so because strangely he isn't performing any heroics and he's rather vulnerable as he's facing imprisonment for his wife's murder. It's a compelling mystery and it's quite scenic out of the court and is packed with intrigue and lies.

The mystery that spams a lot.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 1 February 2022]

Perry's still got it, age and health not withstanding, and so does Della Street. Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale are still commanding in their classic TV roles, joined by William Katt (Hale's real life son) as Perry's assistant, his last appearance in the TV film series. It's a complex taste, somewhat convoluted, involving a popular athlete, David Hasselhoff, on trial for the murder of his wife, accused of marrying her for her money. He got an anonymous call indicated that he would find his wife in the leg, the location of where she and her late twin sister people who are tossed years before in a kidnapping attempt. It's a disturbing premise, tying two seemingly unrelated pieces together, and one that seems impossible to try to figure out. The storyline is as Twisted as the roads in the Mountain Lake Community where this all unfolds.

The audience knows the source of the phone call, Hasselhoff's vindictive ex-girlfriend, Liane Langland, arranging for the late wife (Doran Clarke) to see her and Hasselhoff kissing, and causing all sorts of other problems. She's definitely a nasty woman and a prime suspect, but as always, there are twists. Langland plays the role as a psychopathic soap opera villainess, rather one-dimensional shallow, making her appearance on screen rather eye-rolling. Audra Lindley is another person of interest, her character of the estate manager reminiscent of her classic villainess Liz Matthews on "Another World". No Mrs. Roper here! John Bevk, John Ireland, George Deloy and Darrell Larson are other characters involved, with David Ogden Stiers typically pompous as the prosecuting attorney. O. K., but somewhat perplexing.

Stock outing for Perry

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 3 September 2017]

THE CASE OF THE LADY IN THE LAKE is another typical story in the PERRY MASON series. There are a lot of sub-plots and story ingredients to keep the viewer's interest, but none of them are particularly interesting, and the tame, familiar, TV movie feel of the production means that it lacks edge throughout. This one's about a star tennis player, played by guest star David Hasselhoff in a typically slimy role, accused of murdering his own wife. The ending is fairly surprising and William Katt is on good form in his final series appearance, while old-timer John Ireland has a cameo.

Routine but pleasant

[sundar-2 · 10 June 2001]

"The Lady in the Lake" starts out well. In the beginning, it records the gentle romance between newly-married Billy (David Hasselhof) and Sara Wingate (Doran Clark) and introduces the other main characters who have reasons for being malicious towards the young couple. When Billy is accused of murdering Sara, Perry Mason steps in to defend him. After that this tele-film becomes quite routine. During the courtroom scenes, Perry is not challenged much by the D.A. Even the judge is indulgent towards Perry. Because they are not hostile enough, the dramatic value of "The Lady in the Lake" is lessened. Paul Drake, Jr., is shown to be a rather inept private eye who lets his suspects slip away from his clutches. His incompetence has the effect of lengthening the film by another 30 minutes.

Raymond Burr may have been a great Perry Mason in the late 1950s. However, in these tele-films of the 1980s, he is difficult to admire - the reason being his portly Falstaffian frame which impedes even his gait. It is rather painful to see his leisurely locomotion with the aid of a cane. Why didn't the producers insist that he lose some weight? Similar comments apply to Barbara Hale. But then the purpose of these made-for-TV movies is to stir up memories of the good old days. Therefore, I cannot imagine any other actors playing Perry Mason or Della Street. A young and softer-looking David Hasselhof (in his pre-Baywatch days) and the two main female characters are pleasing to the eye, unlike Burr or Hale.

(Reviewed by Sundar Narayan)

A little different than the usual but marred, as always, by dumb Drake actions

[tomntempe · 4/10 · 22 November 2020]

If the original Perry Mason TV show was a 10, at best these movies are a 6. I gave this a 4 because Drake does even more stupid stuff than usual. I have to think that in order to get "Della" to sign on to do these movies she required them to hire her son to play the Paul Drake character. Aside from hair color he is completely wrong for the part.... One of the worst instances of miss-casting ever. William Katt just does not have the gravitas to play the Experienced Detective and on top of that the writers continually have him doing the stupidest of things which either tip off his hand or put him in situations where it's him against multiple people where he walks in begging to be cut off at the knees. In this movie he repeatedly creates situations in which his quarry gets away. In the woods, in the store, at the motel, on the highway he stupidly goes in with little or no planning and no backup, lets himself be seen and the quarry rabbits away. Infuriatingly stupid.

As to the movie itself, if the stupidity was removed I'd give it a 6 because it's a slightly different approach to a murder and because unlike the first 4 movies in the series it seems Burr had been feeling better (or the directors were more insistent he be a little bit animated) and was able to bring some semblance of life to his part. In the first 4 movies he was figuratively phoning it in.