Wed 1 Dec 2010
Archived Move Review: ONE GIRL’S CONFESSION (1953).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[6] Comments
ONE GIRL’S CONFESSION. Columbia Pictures, 1953. Cleo Moore, Hugo Haas, Glenn Langan, Ellen Stansbury, Burt Mustin. Written, produced & directed by Hugo Haas.
And if Hugo Haas could have played Cleo Moore’s part, he’d have done that, too. But since she’s a hard-featured, statuesque blonde, it think it’s just as well that he didn’t try.
Statuesque in the Anita Ekberg sense. Bodies like this don’t seem to be in favor today, but back in 1953, I’ll bet this movie was the trash equivalent of Gangbusters. This was long before nudity was acceptable on the screen, but there are a lot of open blouses with frilly lingerie underneath to (almost) make up for it.
Anybody who’s honest about it knows exactly why this movie was made. And yet — even though at times it reminded me of the cinematic equivalent of a Gold Medal novel — when it comes down it, this movie is as moral as a Sunday morning in church.
Mary Adams is a waitress who robs her employee and long-time benefactor of $25,000, and goes to jail for it, without telling anyone where she hid the money. As bad it sounds, it’s not, since the money was part of the rackets, and her boss at the restaurant is also the crook that cheated her father many years ago. This, at last, is her chance to get even.
Crooked money is cursed, as they say, however, and when she’s paroled after only three years of good behavior, she finds this out. When she finds a need for the money, the plot suddenly doubles back on her. After some travail, justice finally wins out.
The plot is flawed — how could anyone believe that Mary Adams would be as trusting as she is? — but the essential point is that she is really a Fine Person at Heart. You may not believe it from the screen images you see here, but Cleo is a marshmallow in this film, and so is Hugo Haas.
[UPDATE] 12-01-10. You’d think with all that this movie has going for it, I’d remember it, but I don’t, and I have no idea why.
This is a problem with a solution, however. This film was released on DVD earlier this year as part of the Bad Girls of Film Noir, Volume II collection, a set I purchased as soon as it was out.
December 2nd, 2010 at 6:32 am
I saw this movie recently during a period when I was addicted to film noir. I have to admit I have a weakness for Hugo Haas as an actor and director. He has been called “the foreign Ed Wood”, but I like such films as PICKUP, BAIT, and THY NEIGHBOR’S WIFE.
Not only did he discover Cleo Moore but he discovered the great Beverly Michaels who starred in one of the greatest B-movies of all time, WICKED WOMAN. Character actor Percy Helton had his biggest role in this movie and out of hundreds of parts, this is the one that he had a large poster of hanging over his bed. He should have won an Academy Award as the creepiest dirty old man slobbering over Miss Michaels.
December 2nd, 2010 at 10:50 am
Percy Helton should have played more villains. His odd face and that voice of his! Perfect for reverse typecasting. I remember him in an episode of “Get Smart” and he was particularly sinister in a spoof comedy show where the villains were usually played as buffoons.
December 2nd, 2010 at 1:46 pm
I told this story before on another site, but it’s a good one, so I ask your indulgence.
Here in Chicago, back in the mid-50s, we had a number of local live talk shows, which featured some of the most obnoxious hosts who ever were allowed air time.
Probably the creepiest of these was Jack Eigen, who billed himself as “America’s Most Imitated Interviewer!” He had graying hair, a harsh voice and a stern, unsmiling manner. (On the other site, I described him as being “like Larry King, only without the charm and good looks.”) ( OK, I like the line, anyway.)
Anyhow, Cleo Moore appeared on Jack Eigen’s TV show, airing live, late on a Friday night.
She was there to plug her latest Hugo Haas vehicle (Bait, if memory serves).
At one point, Eigen, in his usual “hard-hitting” style, asked Miss Moore about how real kissing scenes were in the movies.
Cleo offered to demonstrate, and Jack went along.
The on-camera Moore-Eigen kiss lasted anywhere from two to five full minutes, depending on which newspaper you read the next day.
As I said it was a live broadcast, and even as it transpired, the switchboards at Channel 7 lit up as though Christmas came early – mainly in outrage (this was 1953 or 54, after all).
The local TV critics weighed in with their own outrage (they didn’t like Eigen to begin with, but now they really went to town on him).
The story went national (or as national as it could back then), and Eigen’s plans to take his show national soon went by the boards.
Apparently, nobody thought to keep a kinescope of the show, so we’ll never really know just how long The Kiss really lasted.
But the movie did well at the box office that week, so I guess that’s one kind of happy ending.
Isn’t it?
December 2nd, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Mike
A great story! And I found some documentation for it, along with a photo:
http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/jackeigen/index.html
I don’t know if it spoils the story or not, but I’ll quote the following paragraph anyway:
“That a still photographer just happened to be on the scene suggests that the kiss was a publicity stunt.”
According to this online article, the date of The Kiss was February 15, 1954, and Eigen’s contract was terminated the next day.
December 2nd, 2010 at 3:14 pm
I’ve talked and raved about Percy Helton so much that a couple collectors at Pulpfest have started to call me Percy. I take it as a big complement. There is a great scene in KISS ME DEADLY where PI Hammer, played by Ralph Meeker, gleefully slams a desk drawer on Percy’s hand, causing him to whine with terror. One of the greatest character actors with a very distinctive whiny voice.
December 2nd, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Steve –
Thanks for the corroboration of The Kiss.
Rich Samuels is one of Chicago’s go-to guys for local broadcast history, as the mass of links below the Eigen entry indicates. It figures he’d have a post-game picture.
While I’m here, I remember Percy Helton making his only talk show appearance (that I know of) with Merv Griffin circa 1965. The whole family was watching (I was in high school at the time), and when Percy mentioned that he’d made his first stage appearance around 1896, my dad, who knew his character actors, was duly impressed: “Jesus, he’s even older than he looks!”
Hope that this brightens your day.