Perry Mason: The Case of the Heartbroken Bride (1992)

Such a frustrating disappointment

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Perry Mason is invited to the wedding of his niece, the pop idol Kaitlynn Parrish (Heather McAdam), but the big day is ruined when her uncle, Alanzo Hawkes, bursts in hurling insults at her father, Max (Ronny Cox), and brandishing an envelope supposedly containing money. "This will show everyone exactly who you are", he screams before he is knocked out by security and taken into the study to recover. Later, Kaitlynn is discovered standing over Hawkes' body with blood on her hands and a knife at her feet. Lt. Brock (James McEachin) arrests her for the murder and her motive is believed to be connected to her talent agent father who is under investigation for allegedly embezzling his clients' money. Perry, however, believes her to be innocent and sets out to find the real killer...A strictly standard entry into the seemingly never ending series of TVM's based on the classic 1950's-60's courtroom drama series Perry Mason. But, on the whole, it is no less enjoyable for it and certainly fans of the show will love it and for those who have never watched it before it is as good a place as any to start. The only part that doesn't really work is the central theme of Mason representing his niece on a murder charge. It is meant to install an emotional element into the story, but it doesn't really have that much of an effect because in virtually all of these films the client is usually an old friend or acquaintance of Perry's. It seems very tired and repetitive and all too often we ask ourselves "How many old friends can he really have?"The story was written by Brian Clemens, best known as one of the key creative talents behind the seminal British fantasy series The Avengers, and he laces his script with enough intrigue and plot turns to keep murder mystery fans happy. Burr is his usual impressive self as the ace defence attorney, and as usual, he goes all out to defend his client, and in the course of that he exposes other wrongdoers responsible for completely unconnected crimes to his case in order to get at the truth. In this case, as well as clearing his niece for murdering her uncle, he also clears her father of embezzling money from his clients' funds and sees to it that the real culprit faces justice.There is some entertaining action comedy in the scenes involving Mason's attorney - detective sidekick, Ken Malansky (William R Moses), who reluctantly accepts the help of Kaitlynn's fiancé, the soap star Gary Hawkes (Adam Storke). In this feature, Malansky discovers that the murder victim was involved with a gang of ruthless gangsters whom he double crossed in order to extort money from the FBI over bootleg cassettes. The gang mistake him for the murdered man and plot to kill him since he knows too much. Hawkes employs his acting skills as a fake gangster in order to save his life in a hilarious scene. They overpower his would be assassins and Hawkes is a little miffed that Malansky seems ungrateful. "Yeah, I am, Pacino couldn't even cut it" says Malansky in a not entirely successful bid to show his gratitude. You can see that he is slightly embarrassed that he had to be saved by an actor and he never likes people interfering with his cases.There are some interesting faces amongst the supporting cast, including Ronny Cox, Diane Baker, Linda Blair (who shot to fame as a teenager in The Exorcist) and the rock legend Stephen Stills (Crosby Stills And Nash) puts in a special appearance.

THE CASE OF THE HEARTBROKEN BRIDE is a Perry Mason TV movie that begins with a wedding taking place during which one of the guests is found murdered. Of course, the famous lawyer and his friends just so happen to be present and thus immediately involved in the case. Perry must work his way through a cast of red herrings and the usual suspects in order to figure out the identity of the murderer.As far as this series goes, HEARTBROKEN BRIDE is a paint-by-numbers entry. It feels episodic at best, benefiting from some of the guest performances but let down by the join-the-dots nature of the plotting. Certainly Raymond Burr seems to be on autopilot here and his 'action' scene involving a stand-in at the climax is a laugh. As usual, William R. Moses is here just to shoehorn some more explicit material into the production, namely shootings and gun threats from small-time criminals.The best part of the film is the presence of two actors in support, both playing possible suspects. Ronny Cox came to this after TOTAL RECALL although he's not the bad guy this time around, instead the father of the bride. Funny how his character turns out to be quite murky though. Linda Blair is here too, in a funny turn as a karate-chopping suspect. As usual each suspect has to have his or her own motive for the murder and a back story that either implicates or exonerates them.

***SPOILERS*** Trying to have everything go right for his teenage daughter rock music superstar Kaitlynn Parrish's, Heather McAdam, wedding honcho talent agent to the stars Max Parrish, Ronny Cox, gets the shock of his life when his mentally disturbed former business partner and the groom's Gary Hawke, Adam Storke, uncle Alonzo Hawkes, Beau Starr, burst into the wedding hall and crashed the party making a complete jerk of himself in public. The very disturbed and unpredictable Alonzo, also known as Lou, had been in the state pen for a criminal assault conviction for the last three years! Unknown to Max as well as Alonzo's savagely beaten, by him, niece Hannah, Linda Blair, who's a guest at the wedding Alonzo had been given an early release by the appeals court!Frantically waving an envelope and accusing Max of every crime in the book including embezzling his talent agency Alonzo is immediately belted in the jaw and knocked out cold by one of the wedding security man Dave Tyanan, Michael McGrady,and then taken away unconscious to an outer room away from the wedding ceremony. It's later when Max goes into the room to check on Alonzo's condition he finds him stabbed to death with his daughter,the bride,standing over him with her snow white wedding dress and gloves covered with Alonzo's blood and a bloody knife at her feet.Perry Mason,Raymond Burr, a guest at the wedding and the bride Kaitlynn's favorite uncle gets on the case right away by him and his private secretary, also a wedding guest, Della Street, Barbara Hale, finding a false reporter ID pass on the floor that belonged to a Kaitlynn Parrish groupie Suzy Richards, Merle Kennedy, who tried to crash the wedding party. As things turned out in all this confusion Suzy was hiding in a closet and very possibly saw whoever murdered Alonzo Hawke!The movie starts to get really complicated, if it wasn't complected enough already, with its story going into a number of unrelated incidents involving the late Alonzo's unsavory past in him stealing $250,000 worth of bootleg audio tapes, of Kaitlynn latest album, from the mob. Mistaking Perry's leg man and private investigator Ken Malansky, William R. Moses, for Alonzo almost has him knocked off by the mob who seemed to have not heard or read the latest news reports on Alonzo's murder! That's even after Malansky proved to the mob hit-men, who obviously weren't provided with a photo of Alonzo, that he wasn't the person whom they were after!***SPOILERS*** Things start to look real bad for the accused Kaitlynn Parrish when her father Max is forced to admit in court that he's under investigation in the embezzlement of some $250,000.00 from his talent agency giving his daughter who said in public that she would do anything to keep her father's name from being dragged through the mud by a creep like Alonzo a perfect motive for his murder! Perry uncovers a complected plan of stealing $250,000.00 from Max's talent agency and then having him framed for it! The plan falls apart when one of the conspirators gets a bit too greedy for his own good by grabbing all the loot, after knocking off Alonzo, at the expense of his partner! what Alonzo's killer never expected was that the stolen cash was secretly marked with invisible dye, that's seen under ultraviolet light, that he unknowingly ended up marking himself with. It's later after he got his greedy hands on the money that he ended up cooking his goose when Perry shined the light, ultraviolet light, of truth on him in a hushed up and darkened courtroom!

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.