THE CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE

(director: Micael Curtiz; screenwriter: Tom Reed/Brown Holmes/from the novel by Erle Stanley Gardner; cinematographer: David Abel; editor: Terry Morse; music: Bernard Kaun; cast: Warren William (Perry Mason), Margaret Lindsay (Rhoda Montaine), Donald Woods (Carl Montaine), Claire Dodd (Della Street), Allen Jenkins (Spudsy Drake), Errol Flynn (Moxley), Philip Reed (Dr. Claude Millbeck); Runtime: 68; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Harry Joe Brown; First National Pictures; 1935)

“Underwhelming early Perry Mason programmer.“

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Underwhelming early Perry Mason programmer. Directed smoothly by Michael Curtiz (“Casablanca”/”King Creole”).

It’s based on the story by Erle Stanley Gardner and is written by Tom Reed and Brown Holmes. Smug San Francisco super-sleuth lawyer and gourmet chef Perry Mason (Warren William) is sought out in Luigi’s restaurant by the troubled Rhoda Montaine (Margaret Lindsay) to help her out of a jam. Four years ago her husband Gregory Moxley (Errol Flynn, his inauspicious non-talking part in his first American film) vanished without a trace and was declared dead without a body found. Perry goes to the morgue and finds his coffin contains a wooden Indian. When Rhoda married a week ago the son of a millionaire, Carl Montaine (Donald Woods), Moxley reappears and blackmails her for bigamy. But before Perry can talk to him, Moxley is found stabbed to death in his apartment and Rhoda is the prime suspect. Perry and his trusty aide, Spudsy (Allen Jenkins), track down the visitors to Moxley’s apartment the night he was murdered, besides Rhoda, and at a fancy cocktail party reveals who killed the con man blackmailer.

The crime drama has a snappy script, plenty of one-liners and is entertaining. But you’re not getting the TV Perry Mason that starred Raymond Burr. What you must settle for here is a fluff film more than a suspenseful one.

REVIEWED ON 6/29/2017 GRADE: C+   https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/