the audience applauded

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Boring, long, and too preachy.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Cortez's portrayal of Perry Mason is more realistic than William's but not as amusing. None the less, he does a good job in the role playing Mason as an affable but serious attorney. The best in the supporting cast were Harry Davenport as the cantankerous old millionaire Peter Laxter and Jane Bryan as Wilma Laxter, the once heir to Laxter's fortune who he disinherits. The other main supporting cast playing Della Street, Paul Drake and Hamilton Burger are just not memorable (although it was nice finally having Burger in a Mason film). Also good was that there was finally a lengthy court room scene with its dramatic twist ending. Clinker, Peter Laxter's caretaker's cat should, of course, have been black, so, through no fault of his own, he was miscast. If you get a chance, watch the movie even if you're a die-hard Raymond Burr fan (as I am) - you'll still enjoy this movie.

Personally, I am not fond of this film, although Cortez is fine as Mason. The 1930s hosted a brief Warner Brothers series, with three different men in the lead. This is the only movie I have seen from the period.The plot is convoluted, with a few too many characters. I am assuming that all were in the original story - I would love to see the Burr television take that was apparently shot over twenty years later. Speaking of which, I am one of those who grew up on Burr's Mason, so it is strange to experience another actor in the role. This film wastes Della and Drake, in my opinion.Harry Davenport provides his usual supporting role professionalism, albeit in a B movie a few notches below what he was probably accustomed to.Definitely worth a viewing.

In the 1950's I faithfully watched Perry Mason on TV and as many of my generation came to think of Raymond Burr AS Perry Mason. However I will confess that until very recently, I had never read any the novels. I started to read them more or less chronologically by copyright date beginning in the 1930's. I was delighted to view a copy of The Case of the Black Cat. Although Ricardo Cortez was a bit more charming than the literary Perry Mason, I found the story and style to be vintage Erle Stanley Gardner. I hope that if film ever revisits Perry Mason that homework is done and this film is viewed, and perhaps set as a period piece. Certainly,at a time when so many remakes are being done, there is room for a new (or rather an Old )treatment of this literary icon. Erle Stanley Gardner wrote over 100 Perry Mason novels over a thirty year period, a wealth of idea's to draw from.

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.