The Case of the Curious Bride (1935)

This is the second of Erle Gardner's Perry Mason mysteries put on film. Warren William again stars and does a great job in the role. This is also the first of two appearances of Claire Dodd in the role of Della Street. She is by far the best in the early film roles. This Street plays off Mason's witticisms with equal wit. The repartee between the two is quit good and sprinkled throughout this film. Dodd's Della is equally attractive, intelligent and quick on her feet, yet also proper and not so flirtatious as others who play her in the early films. Dodd also imbues her character with a deep attraction to her boss. "The Case of the Curious Bride" is also the first look with some depth at Mason's epicurean side. The opening scene has him with a friend selecting the best crabs – probably at the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. He later is going to prepare a dish he calls "Crab ala Bordeaux." Those are huge Dungeness crabs they are picking over. In my years of crabbing on the Oregon Coast, we seldom got crabs that large. A note for those not familiar with these Northwest crabs – they are cooked as soon as possible. The crabs Mason and friend are looking at and handling have all been cooked already. The audience can clearly see steam and the top of the cooking pot to the left. The mystery in this film is another excellent brain-twister that only Perry Mason and his team of detectives can unravel. And all the cast are very good in their roles. Allen Jenkins is a hoot as Spudsy Drake and Olin Howland is very good as Coroner Wilbur Strong. One other small smile comes with a very short appearance of Errol Flynn. I won't give away any of the story here, but have to mention that there is a tear gas scene that is riotously funny. True, these first movies of Gardner's famous lawyer-detective have a quite different character than millions of TV viewers and later movie fans saw with Raymond Burr. And, the Mason creator, Gardner, apparently didn't like these early films. But he was developing the character as he went along, and Perry Mason evolved after a few books into the courtroom centered mysteries that millions became familiar with from the 1950s on. But I think these early films – especially the first four with Warren William at the helm, are great entertainment. They provide some spice and humor. And they may more accurately reflect the people, customs and behaviors of the various social groups of the time. Toward the end of this film, Margaret Lindsay's character, Rhoda, says to Perry: "You're so wonderful. If only you couldn't cook."

Perry Mason, Celebrity! A whirlwind opening sequence flashes a headline across the screen: "Perry Mason Wins Brilliant Battle of Wits." To celebrate his latest magnificent courtroom victory, Mason and team sweep into a posh restaurant, where the hero waltzes right into the kitchen and starts chopping food, to the delight of the entire kitchen staff.Warren William is charming, energetic, a bit cocky and rather brilliant as the famous lawyer-detective in this zippy series mystery.He is aided by Allen Jenkins, at his best as the assistant whose loyalty is invaluable but who would like some of the credit. Claire Dodd is good in a small role as Mason's secretary Della—or is she his girlfriend? She's certainly the only character who can order Mason around, telling him (for example) to go take a shower.Margaret Lindsay is the "curious bride" of the title, an old friend of Perry's who brings him this new case: she was married four years ago, she says, but her husband disappeared. Now she wants to remarry and needs to prove that that first husband is dead—but she has her doubts. The plot thickens, needless to say, and includes a murder, an empty coffin, and a variety of conversations with the coroner.Nice directorial flourishes add flair—from showy camera zooms to clever little touches (like the shot of a sign on a door– COUNTY MORGUE – that pans down to a floor mat: WELCOME).The pace is also very fast, so fast that you can't quite keep up—at least not with Perry Mason, who not only thinks and talks fast but bounds up stairs two at a time.Sharp dialog and a fairly complicated plot keep things interesting, but it's the enthusiastic cast that make this one especially entertaining.

Together with the noir and the musical, there isn't anything more important to the shape of film narrative than the detective story. And among that, you have two poles, represented by the two greatest sellers of mysteries ever: Christie and Gardner.Christie by far the more sophisticated of the two, engaged in a guessing game with the reader from page one. Each of her stories toys with some element of assumption, of perception. Gardner's approach was to set up an impossible situation, then surprise the reader at the end with an elaborate ballet of comings and goings around the corpse.Gardner's work was extremely formulaic, in fact he actually used a circular slide rule of sorts to make up stories. There were other devices employed in his rather automated "fiction factory." His template of formula and avoidance of challenging the audience was a more popular fit for movies, alas.This is his first movie. He hated it because it tinkered with his formula to create a Perry that compared to Nick Charles, the breakout character of the previous year. So we have an effete humorous character, a gourmet cook overlain on our original mechanical mind. And — good luck for us — the setting is San Francisco only a generation after it was destroyed.The direction alone is worth it, even if you don't appreciate the grand struggle for control over the shape of film narrative. Curtis moves this thing along with a rhythm that matches the cheery elite meals referenced in the dialog.Perry watchers will be particularly interested in how Della Street is handled here. In the stories, she is a loyal machine, as efficient in her way as Drake and Mason. We always know she is in love with her boss (just as Gardner's secretary was) but it is only hinted. Not so here. She's so mooneyed she's almost drunk.Oh, the story itself is tepid. Philo Vance would be doing much better.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This is the best of Warren William's performances as Perry Mason, well directed by Michael Curtiz. This is nothing like the PM you've seen from Raymond Burr, and not exactly like the PM in the books, either.many scenes are hilarious, the french accent and the onion scene being prime examples. Olin Howland as the coroner is priceless.