Double Confession

This one started with such promise. A man is walking along a crude path from a hilltop to the beach. He is encountered by an old salt who warns him about the dangerous path. He comes to a cottage, but when he hears the door opening he hides, the man leaving the house looks around, has as a smoke, and goes up the path to the top of the hill. When he is out of sight a man's scream rings out. What a great and mysterious set up. Don't get your hopes up, because it is all downhill or treading water from there.

So the next setting is daylight in a beachside amusement park. The man who was hiding in the bushes is asking for a job, (Derek Farr as Jim Medway), but he seems more like he is pumping his old acquaintance for information about two murders the night before. What follows is Medway going to businessman William Hartnell, telling him that he killed his wife (she was the one Medway was going to see at the cottage), but he will tell the police that Hartnell did it because he knows Hartnell was having an affair with his wife. There were plenty of reasons for Hartnell to kill her - Hartnell is married, he didn't want the affair exposed, etc. And Hartnell WAS there. He was the guy leaving the house as Medway approached. Then Medway does what anybody does who threatens a man with lots of power who isn't afraid of violence. He spends a day frolicking at the beach! There is so much going on here it really blunts the power of the story because it has nothing to do with the story and just looks weird in a noir. Medway meets up with a girl who has her own problems - completely non criminal ones. Then there is Hartnell, who to be such a big powerful man of action, really does nothing but pace back and forth in his big office smoking heavily. Peter Lorre is Hartnell's friend who offers to kill Medway and make it look like an accident, and their relationship seems odd. Lorre acts like he looks forward to killing....ANYBODY! And he hovers over Hartnell like he is a little bit in love with him and the sentiment seems to be returned.

The last fifteen minutes or so make it almost worth it, but in the meantime you'll just be asking yourself "Where IS this thing going?".

This film looks as if it has been cobbled together by a number of writers neither of whom had seen what the others were writing.There are so many contrivances and coincidences that at times make the film seem ludicrous.There seem to be half a dozen films in one,none of which seem to be connected.However there has to be some entertainment value in watching Kathleen Harrison trying to play beach cricket and Leslie Dwyer playing with his model boat in a three piece suit with his trouser legs rolled up.The main plot is just plain daft enlivened by the chalk and cheese performances and pairing of Lorre and Hartnell.There is one scene in the climax with Lorre at full blast which reminds of the scene between him and Bogart in The Maltese Falcon when Bogart takes his gun away.Unfortunately the antics of Lorre nor brief glimpses of familiar faces such as Esme Cannon and a very young Peter Butterworth cannnot save this mess submerging beneath the waves.

Derek Farr gets off the train at the seaside resort and starts down the cliff, directed by lobsterman Edward Rigby. The next morning, he's wandering around, running into Joan Hopkins, and threatening old friend and local restaurant magnate William Hartnell with telling the police that he killed his wife at that house. Hartnell denies it, but fears the scandal will ruin him and make his wife and two sons miserable. Peter Lorre, whom Hartnell saved from death, and who now is doglike in his devotion, suggests that he will kill Farr for him. Something is worrying Miss Hopkins. Not only is Farr's wife dead, but so is Rigby. Inspector Naunton Wayne has to figure out what happened.

It's always dark days at seaside fun fairs in England, isn't it? It's a black, tangled mare's nest for the characters and audience to puzzle over, and a grand cast of character actors, including Kathleen Harrison, Leslie Dwyer, and Peter Butterworth. Everyone has something to hide, everyone has something to regret, and if this is in no way a fun movie, it certainly is one that holds your attention.

Despite seeing many British 1940s/50s films. this was the first time I had seen "Double Confession".The cast reads like a veritable whose who of well known actors/actresses working in 1950.I have seen Derek Farr playing very anodyne parts in films like "Quiet Wedding" (1941) & its companion film "Quiet Weekend" (1946) but given the right casting he could turn on his thespian power playing the lead in this film.Ronald Howard (who plays the newspaper editor) was 32 when he made this film and looks every inch his father's son.His father being of course the great actor Leslie Howard.Naunton Wayne (in one of his outings without Basil Radford - Charters & Caldicott) plays the police inspector who actually drinks whiskey while on duty!Another film Naunton played solo in 1950 was "Highly Dangerous" with Margaret Lockwood.Kathleen Harrison plays her usual working class role seemingly trying to "pick up" Leslie Dwyer on the beach.Edward Rigby adds his usual colourful local accented character.The only surprise to me was Joan Hopkins whom Derek Farr befriends at the beach resort.I saw a documentary recently and many women who had illegitimate children felt compelled to renounce motherhood for them and send them off for adoption , if it would have caused a family scandal if they had kept them.Joan plays such a mother agonising over this type of moral dilemma.She does have lovely diction and it is always a pleasure to hear beautifully spoken English which actresses were taught in their drama academies at the time.

Unlike the two previous reviewers, I notice the mass of user ratings on IMDb rated this 7.3/10 which is good and I too rated it 7/10.I agree the plotting is a bit confused and could have done with better editing but I enjoyed this film nevertheless.

DOUBLE CONFESSION is a once-lost British slice of film noir, filmed in the coastal resort of Bexhill-on-Sea. The film itself is only partially successful, featuring a very bland and undistinguished leading man in Derek Farr, and is also quite badly written with lots of extraneous sub-plots to pad out the running time. But it also has one of the most wonderful casts in a film from this era.

The general vibe here is BRIGHTON ROCK, although there's also a murder mystery aspect to the story as Farr attempts to solve a dual murder: that of his wife, and another chap who happened to fall from a cliff at virtually the same time. Sadly the premise is confusing, mainly because the second cliff-top murder isn't actually shown, and things don't become clear until the very end. The female cast also fare badly, engaged in bland sub-plots that merely slow the pacing down.

Still, there are some good set-pieces here and there, not least an attack by speedboat that bears some stylistic similarities to the famous crop-duster attack in NORTH BY NORTHWEST - maybe Hitch got inspiration from this? The rousing climax is also worth waiting for, but the main reason to watch this is the supporting cast which is absolutely packed with familiar faces. William Hartnell and Peter Lorre make a fine tag-team as the villains, but that's only the start. There's Ronald Howard as a journalist, George Woodbridge as a copper, Leslie Dwyer as a random guy enjoying himself at the beach, and the wonderful comic actor Naunton Wayne (THE LADY VANISHES) as the investigating detective. There are also bit parts for future faces like CARRY ON actors Peter Butterworth and Esma Cannon. All in all a great collection of names which makes DOUBLE CONFESSION well worth a watch.