This is a fast moving comedy/mystery directed by Warner Brother's best studio director Michael Curtiz. The film is known for the odd out of focus dissolves between scenes that run throughout the film and a strange gourmet food motif subplot that almost overshadows the murder mystery.
Ace criminal lawyer Perry Mason is also a master chef and he probably spends the first twenty minutes of the film preparing his dinner. Perry Mason takes the case of an ex girlfriend/mistress who is accused of murdering her husband. Mason races around trying to solve the mystery, not so much to keep his client out of the electric chair but to wrap things up before his vacation begins.
Warren William plays Perry Mason as a very smooth operator who isn't above bending and breaking the law to beat the police and district attorney. In fact the level of dishonesty throughout the entire legal system is incredibly cynical. The criminals have more of an ethical code than the court system.
As usual in murder mysteries the fun isn't the murder plot, it's watching the protagonist figure things out in an entertaining way. Michael Curtiz was a director who knew how to pace a film, and he races through this plot pausing only long enough for another weird food joke.
A stylish, entertaining and very strange mystery film.
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