Another thing to consider is simply telling Apache to consider .html files as being peppered with perl code:

AddOutputFilter Includes html
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To use the above, you must also include Includes in the Options section of your httpd.conf file.

Options Indexes Includes etc...
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This way, you may include perl modules, or bits of perl code you'd like to exec, much as you would with the more commonly used extension: .shtml. In fact you could invent any extension you like -- .perl5, for example.

HTH