One Girl's Confession

1953
Approved
1h 14m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

659

YOUR RATING

Hugo Haas and Cleo Moore in One Girl's Confession (1953)

Mary Adams works in a tawdry waterfront restaurant where the owner not only maltreats her, he also cheated her father out of a fortune years ago. The owner acquires $25,000 in an illegal transaction, which Mary promptly steals, hides, confesses her crime and serves a short sentence. Freed, she goes to work in a restaurant owned by Dragomie Damitrod, and when he gets into trouble over a gambling debt, she offers to help him by telling him where the $25,000 is hidden, and will loan him what he needs. But circumstances indicate he has stolen all of the money, so she clouts him on the head, killing him. She then learns he didn't steal the money, digs it up and donates it to an orphanage, and surrenders to the police, where she learns that Damitrod is not dead. All is not lost as she seems to be heading for matrimony with fisherman Johnny, who has been hanging around romancing her at her various jobs between jail stints.

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Film Noir Action Crime Drama

Another of the "Fate and Irony" films from director-writer-producer-actor Hugo Haas but this one has less hair-shirt torment than most of his offerings, although his camera, as usual, linger... Read allAnother of the "Fate and Irony" films from director-writer-producer-actor Hugo Haas but this one has less hair-shirt torment than most of his offerings, although his camera, as usual, lingers provocatively on the contours of the leading lady and, in this case, the leading lady is... Read allAnother of the "Fate and Irony" films from director-writer-producer-actor Hugo Haas but this one has less hair-shirt torment than most of his offerings, although his camera, as usual, lingers provocatively on the contours of the leading lady and, in this case, the leading lady is more than well-contoured. Mary Adams works in a tawdry waterfront restaurant where the ow... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

659

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Smooch
(as Ellen Stansbury)

Anthony Jochim

Father Benedict

Burt Mustin

Gardener

Leonid Snegoff

Gregory Stark

James Nusser

Warden
(as Jim Nusser)

Russ Conway

Police Officer

Mara Lea

Girl

Gayne Whitman

District Attorney

Leo Mostovoy

Gambler
(as Leo Mastovoy)

Martha Wentworth

Old Lady

Roy Engel

Bar Manager
(uncredited)

Jan Englund

Young inmate
(uncredited)

Joseph Mell

Dock Worker
(uncredited)

Frank Mills

Barfly
(uncredited)
…

Director
- Hugo Haas
Writer
- Hugo Haas
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Hugo Haas' character's new digs: Hotel Shangri-La 1301 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, CA

Goofs
When Damitrof walks out of his swanky new apartment, camera crew and crowd of on-lookers is reflected in glass door.

Quotes
Father Benedict: It's none of my business, my child, but that money you took... is cursed money.

Connections
Referenced in We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen (2005)

User reviews21

Review

Featured review

7/10

Another Hugo Haas Gem

I've decided that Hugo Haas is one of the undiscovered gems of film noir.

He had a knack for making quirky little movies that are tons of fun and as casting himself in likable and memorable roles. He also managed to get terrific performances out of mostly unknown actresses. In this one, that actress is Cleo Moore, who reminded me for the entire movie of a blonde, 1950s version of Marcia Gay Harden. She plays a young woman who steals some money, fesses up, spends time in jail, then goes back to get the money, which she hid away in a forest, once she's released. But the interference of her bar owner boss (played by Haas) complicates things, and we wonder for a while if she'll ever recover the money.

I was really rooting for her to, since she ends up being such a winning character. She's basically a really good person, even if she's got a noirish femme fatale attitude. Every time she does something wrong, she immediately confesses to it, a recurring detail that I thought was pretty funny, whether intentionally so or not. There's also a hunkadoodle sailor played by Glenn Langan, he of the manly, hirsute forearms, but he doesn't have much to do except stand next to Moore every so often, towering over her and looking like he wants to rip her clothes off. One can't really blame him.

This is just a really fun little pot boiler.

Grade: A-