Perry Mason - Le mariage compromis

What I found interesting and different in this one was that the courtroom scenes were all at a hearing instead of a trial. Not sure if hearings are usually this detailed, but different nonetheless. The main thing was that I amazed my wife by picking out Stephen Stills in a cameo role. Would love to know the story of how he got in this one. Thanks to Flix for showing this series often and part of the fun of watching this one and all the others is to see the use of the "latest technology" at the time, especially the "mobile phones" that are bigger than some laptops now, and the computers that are in just about every scene in the police and lawyers offices.

An interesting entry in the "Perry Mason" TV movie series. This time, Perry has to solve the murder of an unsavory interloper at a celebrity wedding. Of course, the accused, his "niece", is not the true killer. What makes this case above the norm is the courtroom fireworks and the insinuations throughout that Mason has very personal reasons for solving this paticular case.

A really nasty tempered drunken individual in Beau Starr crashes the wedding of his nephew and confronts the father of the bride over some ancient grudges. He gets cold cocked and put to rest on a coach. But later on Starr is found with a knife in his chest and the would be bride, Heather McAdam standing over him.

Heather's a reigning pop star like Jessica Simpson and she's marrying her own Nick Lachey in Adam Storke. But there's a whole host of suspects. However she's got one thing in her corner an 'uncle' who's a well known attorney and who never loses a case.

This is one of the few times where we get a hint of a relationship with Perry Mason and someone else. This never happened in the hour television series back in the day. Of course he's not a biological uncle, but you can draw your own conclusion as to what happened way back when with Raymond Burr and McAdam's parents, Ronny Cox and Diane Baker.

I found this film, one of the weaker Perry Mason stories. Had it not been for the bride and her fame and the fact that she was found with the body, the real motive of the crime would have been apparent from the start and the police in the person of James McEachin would have focused their attention in the right direction.

Still I do love my Perry Mason stories so.

I was enjoying this, but Tivo failed to record the big reveal! I liked the scenes in the club, and the young fans of "Kaitlynn". 1992 fashions are also worth a look. Linda Blair is good as one of the suspects. And Kaitlynn's fiancé (a soap opera actor) comes good as he channels Al Pacino to thwart some Bad Men.

Merle Kennedy is awful as the 16-year-old fan Suzy. She gazes wide-eyed at random points in the air, runs like a four-year-old and chomps food in an unmannerly fashion.

I'm from the UK, so I was frustrated at the way many of the actors dropped their voices and mumbled so I missed the dialogue. Had to look up IMDb to find out what the victim was called (Warren Fox? Lorne Hox? Actually "Lon" for Alonzo, Hawkes.). Perhaps the sound quality wasn't terribly good.

There are too many youngish men with dark hair and I found it hard to tell them apart.

Another high point - the over-the-top decor in the office of the record company exec. One weird note: the exec, and many of the dodgy or music biz characters, wore tiny, lame pony tails.

Pop star Kaitlynn Parrish (Heather McAdam) is getting married, a major event with the press and her fans trying to get a glimpse and some gossip. Perry (Raymond Burr), a long time friend of Kaitlynn and her father Max (Ronny Cox), is at the wedding with Della (Barbara Hale) but things turn a bit awry when the groom's drunk uncle, Alonzo Hawkes (Beau Starr) crashes the wedding, angry at being kept away whilst holding an envelope claiming it will reveal all the dirt on Max. After being knocked out by a punch from a security guard, Alonzo is put in another room to sleep it off but later on is found murdered with Kaitlynn standing over him. With Perry being a family friend he sets about defending Kaitlynn and finding out who the real murderer is.

Quite an enjoyable mystery with a nice nostalgic look at 80's pop music. It's very formulaic, however there's a liveliness to the proceedings with some interesting suspects.