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.

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. 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?). Perhaps the sound quality wasn't terribly good. 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.