Allow me to start with two assumptions:

1.You start the Perl debugger and the first thing you see is a lot of garbage that scrolls past faster than you can read. Am I correct in assuming this?
(If not, please ignore this reply)

2.You are currently drinking beer brewed by Belgian monks.
(If not, drink one and continue hacking)

Try the following command inside after starting with ">perl -d file.pl" like you did.

DB<1> |R
[download]

This will restart the debugger and pipe the command through your shell's pager. This might even work in good 'ol DOS.

You can get help in the debugger by typing

DB<1> |h
[download]

(I bogarted most of this from the perldebug manpage)