The Case Of The Curious Bride - A Friend In Need
Fresh crabs in hand, Perry Mason heads to Luigi’s Italian Restaurant where Luigi allows him to personally cook them for his friends. There was no such eatery in San Francisco in 1935 - this was filmed at Warner Brothers Studios.
But he takes a break when an old flame, Rhoda (Margaret Lindsay), stops by. She tells him about the husband of a friend of hers who reportedly had died four years earlier but may have recently been seen alive. She wants to remarry but needs to ascertain the husband’s legal status. Mason isn’t fooled - he realizes the ‘curious bride’ is Rhoda herself.
When Rhoda leaves she forgets to take her purse and a surreptitious peek confirms Mason’s suspicion - a telegram inside suggests she is being blackmailed. He also sees a small handgun. For protection? Or… no no, surely she wouldn’t…
Rhoda walks to her car followed by, as it turns out, her new husband Carl Montaine (Donald Woods). He too is curious, he wants to find out why she has been acting strangely. Once again this location cries out “Back Lot”, filmed at Warner Brothers Studios.
She pulls into the driveway of her home but there is little in the way of clues here to identify it.
Then … Fortunately later in the movie Mason drives here during daytime which reveals its location. As he approaches her home this block, with a single set of cable car tracks, is familiar to CitySleuth.
… and Now, we are looking east down Washington Street with Lafayette Park on the right. The tall swanky apartment building is 2006 Washington and at far left at 2080 Washington, mostly hidden behind a monster privacy hedge, is the Adolph Spreckels Mansion, now the home of author Danielle Steel. (CitySleuth recognized the block having posted about it in Pal Joey and The Man Who Cheated Himself). The tracks of the east-bound Washington Street section of the Washington-Jackson cable car line were removed after the line was shut down in September 1956.
Then … Mason pulls up in front of Rhoda’s home. In the script it was 2309 Hawthorne Avenue but in real life this is 2100 Washington Street on the corner of Octavia (map).
… and Now, comparing the home (as best we can through those darn trees) to the nighttime view above, some of the architectural detailing on the lower level has been eliminated - more’s the pity. The Spreckels Mansion is partly visible at far right.