Strider-100 Review of One Girl's Confession

One Girl's Confession (1953)

I have to "Confess" that Cleo Moore really shines bright in this movie.

[10/10 · 2 February 2021]

The greatest contribution to film that Hugo Haas did was featuring Cleo Moore in his movies. Cleo has charisma and really knows how to carry herself. She plays strong characters. This film so far is the best one I have watched of the seven they made together. Cleo plays Mary Adams who works for a crooked man who bilked her father out of his fair share of the business profits in a bar restaurant they owned together so Mary decides to rob the man to the tune of $25,000. She confesses to robbing him but won't tell the authorities where she has hidden the money. She goes to prison and is a shining light in the prison. She works in the garden with the gardener who is played by Andy Griffith Show veteran Burt Mustin who explains that anything buried around tree roots can become rearranged because the roots shift and turn and changes the position of objects (important plot element). Mary gets out of prison on good behavior and goes to work on the wharf in a bar restaurant owned by the Hugo Hass character named Dragomie Damitrof. Dragomie hires her quickly which causes his girl friend to become jealous. When she questions him on it he replies "I haven't given her a second thought" and she says, "That's because you are still thinking about the first one." Mary and Dragomie become good friends as employer and employee. Mary starts dating a fisherman named Johnny who comes to the restaurant to eat just so he can watch her played by Glenn Langan. Meanwhile Dragomie who has a bad gambling habit has lost the restaurant due to inability to quit gambling. Mary wants to help him so she tells him about the stolen money and where he can find it buried by a tree in the woods. Feeling good and thinking she has helped her friend out of financial jam Mary discovers that the money was not found and now Dragomie's life is in ruin. Mary loses her job. A week later she discovers that Dragomie is rich and doing well. She suspects him of lying to her about not finding the money and she confronts him. In a moment of anger she cracks a bottle over his head and thinks she has killed him. She flees. In a moment of reflection, Mary thinks about what the old gardener told her about the roots of tree shifting the position of objects. She goes to dig for the money and finds it. She now feels super guilty. She goes and places the money box in the foyer of the children's orphanage and then goes and confesses her murder to the police, who explain to her that no murder was committed and that Dragomie was alive and well. Relieved she goes to reacquire the 25,000 left in the foyer of the orphanage but as she returns one of the Nun's picked up the money box so she is out of luck. Dragomie and Mary become friends again and she gets her old job back and of course she might have a future life with the fisherman that loves her and wants to marry her. A happy ending for all. Great movie, really cheered me up, and Cleo Moore was amazing!