Perry Mason: The Case of the Heartbroken Bride

Heather MacAdam is discovered standing over the dead body of her uncle, Beau Starr, holding a bloody knife, with more blood on her hands and bridal gown. That's pretty damning circumstantial evidence. However Raymond Burr is a guest at the wedding. He tells her to answer no questions. Since Perry Mason is her lawyer, there's no doubt she didn't do it and the culprit will confess on the witness stand. It makes you wonder why they bother to even charge her.

It's a very good entry in the series of TV movies that Burr starred in during the last seven years of his life. Part of the pleasure is a stellar cast of actors: not only Burr, Barbara Hale as Della Street and William Moses as his investigator, but Paul Dooley as the certain-to-lose ADA, but Ronny Cox, Linda Blair and Diane Baker show up.

Mostly, though, it's a well-written show (Brian Clemmens and Gerry Conway are credited), with a lovely series of red-herring subplots to incriminate Miss MacAdam and add texture to the story. Enjoy.

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.

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.

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.

Perry Mason is invited to the wedding of his niece, a famous popstar. During the wedding ceremony things are disrupted by the bride's uncle threatening her father. Security overpower him and take him into a side room, but later he is found dead with the bride standing over him. She is arrested as evidence is found that the bride's father, Max Parrish was being investigated for extortion. Perry takes up the case while Ken goes after a young fan who had sneaked into the wedding and may have seen the murderer.

Mason films usually suffer when they try to shoe-horn the lawyer into the case rather than just having him being taken on by a client. However this doesn't suffer as bad as some of the other ones, although it does make things a little more difficult than they should be. The personal involvement in the plot makes things a little more complex and awkward rather than upping the emotion (as was the hope I guess). However aside from this it moves along at the usual pace for these films. Malansky's bit is not as good as usual and only the `side-kick' being a soap actor makes it a little amusing, but Mason does make good use of the emotional involvement in his courtroom presence.

Burr is good but seems a little at odds having to deliver a more involved performance this time around. Hale has little to do but tries to up the hinted romance by being possessive and such. Moses is good but has less to do. The support cast are interesting with Ronny Cox and Linda Blair being the well-known faces.

Overall a passable but not great entry in the series. A good ending that isn't too much of a blue-sky twist and a reasonable plot make for solid fare for those of us who enjoy this type of thing.