One Girl's Confession
One Girl’s Confession (1953) – 5.5/10
During the opening credits of this film there is a silhouette of a buxom
woman in profile languorously standing there in a pose to titillate. Well,
titillate for the early 1950's anyways. This was a common characteristic
of the films produced and directed by Hugo Haas during that decade. He seems
to have had a fixation on well-built blondes in bullet proof brassieres
that look like launching pads. If that fixation was personal or professional
I can't say. He was and is I guess for those who even remember him known
for his low budget morality films that use the promise of sleaze and endowed
women to bring in an audience. Later he was called the "foreign Ed Wood"
but at least from my first viewing of one of his films I would say that is
unfair. This is a well-made film but with no money and not very good actors
- except for him I should add. He often acted in his own films and is very
good in this.
That should come as no surprise considering his background. He came from
Czechoslovakia where he was one of their film industry's biggest stars in
the 1930's. Then Hitler invaded the country and Haas being Jewish and a
critic of Hitler got out and came to America. His brother did not and died
in a concentration camp. He didn't speak English but learned quickly and
not having the looks of a Charles Boyer ended up in character roles usually
as one of the bad guys. He was in a number of good films - King Solomon's
Mines, The Fighting Kentuckian, A Bell for Adano - but in the 50's decided
to produce his own films and distribute them through the studios. In this
case Columbia. His films never made much money and in the early 60's he moved
back to Europe always hoping to get back to his home country but it never
happened. He died in 1968.
The B blonde bombshell in this one is Cleo Moore who tried hard but never
quite made it in film other than appearing in a number of Haas's films.
She is sort of Marilyn Monroe like without the oomph. She was married at
one time to the son of Huey Kingfish Long, the legendary politician from
Louisiana. She was 15 at the time. This was Louisiana. After that failed
she moved out to California and tried out for the films. She left the business
after 1957 and married rich.
In One Girl's Confession she is a waitress in a diner owned by a man who
took care of her since she was a child after he cheated her father out of
all his money. It is not a cordial relationship. In the diner the men try
handling her as much as their food but she will have no part of that. She
is a good girl but that doesn't stop her from stealing $25,000 from the
owner and then admitting it to the cops. $25,000 must have gone a lot further
back then because she is willing to go to jail knowing that the hidden money
will be waiting for her and she can start life all over again. When she
gets out early for good behavior she bides her time and gets another waitress
job in a diner run by Haas. Haas is great in this as a genial guy of ambiguous
morals. But nothing really happens in the film. You keep expecting noir to
creep in like a thief in the night and steal the movie but it becomes more
of a film about fate like an O'Henry story.
