Confidence Girl

"Confidence Girl" is a very frustrating film. The first half is clever and exciting. Yet, inexplicably, the entire pace and style of the film chances midway through--and the quality of the production sinks.

When the film begins, a special investigator, Roger Kingsley (Tom Conway), meets with the police about a confidence woman he's been pursuing, Mary Webb (Hillary Brooke). He even gets department store managers and police to help him in his hunt for the woman. The only problem is, she is Kingsley's partner! And, for much of the film, Webb swindles people right and left while in some cases Kingsley helps her and in others he misdirects the police. This is all very clever and exciting and it hooked me.

I have no idea why, but a bit later, instead of all these many scams, Kingsley devises a very, very, very elaborate mind-reading routine starring Webb. As I said, it's elaborate and it takes so much money and so many confederates that it's utterly ridiculous. The scheme works very well--and they wait to make a big score. However, when a murder occurs in town, the cocky Kingsley insists they should incorporate this into the act. As for Webb, she goes along for a while but when she realizes she MUST act or someone else will be killed, she goes to the police.

Aside from the second half being ridiculous and fitting poorly into the first part, the film hinges on a sociopathic woman suddenly caring enough to alert the police--saving someone's life but also dooming her to prison. If this woman steals and hurts people throughout the film, who in their right mind would believe that she suddenly is bothered by her conscience?! Overall, a movie that starts very well but takes an unexpected detour to Dumb-Dumb City! Not worth your time.

I am sure that even the most die hard movie goers have never heard of this film, a cute little crime flick from director Andrew Stone, a famous B thriller maker, and the first to introduce some disaster elements in his movies. I found this movie by chance in my huge library, digging deep inside my VHS and DVDs storage. It also seems to be nearly invisible on any channel, even on line. Not a masterpiece but a very inventive and unusual piece of work, starring Tom Conway - George Sanders' brother - and this beautiful actress whom I never remember the name. It is not so short but never boring, taut. Really worth the watch. There was another crime film speaking of shoplifting: I WAS A SHOPLIFTER, starring Scott Brady.

After a very promising start Confidence Girl goes haywire as our title character Hillary Brooke develops a conscience from out of nowhere. You wouldn't see this in either The Grifters or The Sting.

Tom Conway formerly The Falcon is her partner in crime. Chutzpah Conway has in abundance as he both plays a private detective and works the cons with her. Has the real cops fooled completely for quite a long time.

They and the film are at its best when they take pawnbroker Walter Kingsford. The film goes wrong when Brooke and Conway do a phony psychic act.

Nice documentary style and Conway is brazen to the end. But it also folds in the latter half.

Falcon fans might like seeing Conway on the other side of the law.

You know if a movie about confidence men aka con men (or in this case an ironic twist-titled CONFIDENCE GIRL) is being narrated/opened by an actual government agent, it won't particularly support their crooked schemes that would happen (from THE STING to DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS) decades later: when the cops are the heavies, the tricksters the anti-heroes and their victims rich dolts who should have never had so much money to begin with...

But with the casting of the always smooth and dashing Tom Conway, leading to a nifty first-act twist... instead of being one of the crowded room of detectives after Hillary Brooke's titular CONFIDENCE GIRL he's actually her partner... the title CONFIDENCE COUPLE would have fit better...

Or perhaps even CONFIDENCE NIGHTCLUB since the entire last half takes place where she works on stage, supposedly reading minds of seated customers while he learns about them from the floorboards above: a clever ruse given away much too quick for any kind of tension or suspense to build around what eventually turns into your basic morality tale: herein centering on the girl's budding guilt, and just how long her man plans on stretching it...

Either way, both Conway and Brooke make such a resilient couple, their schemes could have been worked into a series of programmers: but in classic film noir, crime simply doesn't pay, even for the more likeable/affable crooks.

It starts off as a typical police procedural with a brief introductory spiel by a Los Angeles police official warning against the confidence game, then proceeds to tell the case of Mary Webb (Brooke) and her association with Roger Kingsley (Conway).

This was one intricately plotted film that starts off with a nice twist following confidence girl Webb and her associates through various cons, culminating in an elaborate phony mentalist night club act.

Hillary Brooke looks great and does a convincing turn as Webb, Tom Conway (George Sander's brother) is her equal, believable. I've been familiar with Brooke from when I was a kid she was a regular, the blond bombshell that all the guys in Patterson on the Abbott & Costello TV show, were crazy about. Didn't realize she was a home girl (Astoria, NY) until I saw her bio. She shines.

Very similar to The Sting, but in my opinion even better for the 50s location sequences, check it out for yourselves. 8/10 Streaming on Netfix