The Case of the Curious Bride (1935)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Erle Stanley Gardner (story)
Tom Reed (screenplay)

Release Date:

13 April 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Drama

Plot:

After giving the District Attorney another stinging defeat, Perry plans to take a vacation in China...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Murder | District Attorney | Restaurant | San Francisco California

Cast

Warren William	...	Perry Mason
Margaret Lindsay	...	Rhoda Montaine
Donald Woods	...	Carl Montaine
Claire Dodd	...	Della Street
Allen Jenkins	...	Spudsy Drake
Phillip Reed	...	Dr. Claude Millbeck
Barton MacLane	...	Chief Detective Joe Lucas
Wini Shaw	...	Doris Pender (as Winifred Shaw)
Warren Hymer	...	Oscar Pender, Doris' Brother
Olin Howland	...	Coroner Wilbur Strong
Charles Richman	...	C. Phillip Montaine
Thomas E. Jackson	...	Toots Howard, 'Inquirer' Reporter (as Thomas Jackson)
Errol Flynn	...	Gregory Moxley
Robert Gleckler	...	Detective Byrd
James Donlan	...	Detective Fritz

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #685)

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

First National Pictures

Trivia:

Donald Woods appears as the character Carl Montaine. In 1937, he would actually play Perry Mason in The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937), the last in the Warner Bros. Perry Mason series.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the first scene at Fisherman's Wharf, Perry is picking out crabs, and he says, "Joe, we've decided upon these four antagonistic anthropods." Crabs are arthropods; there is no such thing as an anthropod.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Della Street: [to Perry] You're so wonderful. If only you couldn't cook.

Movie Connections:

Version of "Perry Mason: The Case of the Curious Bride (#2.5)" (1958)

Soundtrack:

Neapolitan Nights

Forget that it's supposed to be Perry Mason and love it!

"The Case of the Curious Bride" is one of the Perry Mason films of the 1930s that starred Warren William as Perry. Erle Stanley Gardner hated these films with a passion. His 1930s Perry in the books was a passionate young man given to intense speeches. He mellowed later on, of course, and it was Gardner himself who saw Burr at the audition for Hamilton Burger and said, "That's Perry Mason." (The original star of the series was supposed to be Fred MacMurray.) So it's easy to see why Gardner despised everything about this particular Mason incarnation.

Regardless of how Gardner felt, this film is a lot of fun, thanks to a breezy performance by Warren William, who flirts shamelessly with every woman who crosses his path and fools the DA time and time again. The dialogue is fast and witty, and Curtiz keeps the action going at a breakneck speed. Allan Jenkins is Paul Drake like you've never seen him - Perry calls him Spudsy -- and Della is the beautiful Clare Dodd. Margaret Lindsay is the woman Perry is defending, who comes to him with a marital problem, i.e., the husband she thought was dead is alive - at first. Later, he winds up dead, in the person of...Errol Flynn in his first American appearance - and his wife is accused. Flynn doesn't have much to do except appear in flashback. For some reason, instead of Los Angeles, the story is set in San Francisco - more atmosphere, perhaps.

William seems to have had the same approach to this character as he had for Philo Vance and the Sam Spade character he played in Satan Met a Lady, but he's so delightful, it doesn't matter. He always looks like he's having a blast, and the audience does too. Hard to believe that until he hit B movies in the mid-'30s, he generally played heavies, but he did, and played them well. When his leading man days were over, he continued in character roles until his death in 1948. How great that we can see his talent now on Turner Classic Movies.

This film is a great reminder that during the Depression, Hollywood gave audiences films that to enjoy and watch to forget their troubles for awhile. I'm not in the Depression per se; I'm just depressed, but "The Case of the Curious Bride" put a smile on my face. It will yours, too.