The Case of the Curious Bride: Quick, talky, and strangely fun

If you have a soft spot for movies where people talk in rapid-fire bursts and everyone is wearing a sharp suit, The Case of the Curious Bride is going to be your kind of afternoon. It is not exactly a deep dive into the human psyche, but it keeps the gears turning.

You should probably skip this if you need your mysteries to be perfectly airtight. The plot gets tangled up in itself about halfway through, and I’m still not 100% sure how the bigamy angle fully resolved. Honestly, it didn't even matter that much.

Seeing Errol Flynn pop up in such a small role is a bit of a trip. He is barely in it, but he has that effortless spark that makes you wonder why they didn't just give him more to do. It’s a bit like watching A Bundle of Blues where you’re just waiting for the next moment to happen.

Warren William as Perry Mason? He is just great. He doesn't play the saint; he plays the guy who is clearly annoyed he has to do his job, but he’s also clearly the smartest person in the room. He treats the courtroom like he is bored at a dinner party, which is a vibe I really appreciate.

There is this one scene involving a coroner and a very convenient piece of evidence that feels like it was written on the back of a napkin five minutes before filming. It is sloppy. I loved it.

The pacing is aggressive. It doesn't give you time to think about the plot holes, which is definitely the right choice for this script. If it slowed down for even a second, the whole thing would probably fall apart like a house of cards.

The lighting in the final act gets weirdly moody for no reason. It suddenly feels like a completely different movie for about three minutes, then it just goes back to standard bright-room interrogation stuff. 🎥

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even the best Perry Mason movie out there. But it has this weird, frantic energy that a lot of modern mysteries are missing. It’s just fun, plain and simple.