La folle confession

Brilliant blend of screwball and black comedy with Carole Lombard at her best playing a compulsive liar married to a scrupulously honest lawyer, Fred MacMurray.

She gets duped into accepting a secretarial job that seems to good to be true. It is. She wrestles with the man, punches him in the stomach and leaves. Later that afternoon she goes back to retrieve her hat with pal Una Merkel. But just as they get up their courage to sneak in a get her things, the police show up because the man has been murdered.

In jail she concocts a scheme to say she killed him to defend her honor. MacMurray will defend her, free her, and become famous. All their troubles will be over. But in a bar sits a man, John Barrymore, who has ideas of cashing in on the murder case.

A flop in its day, but a terrific comedy with top performances by all. Lombard is totally wonderful as the liar who dreams up stories in the blink of an eye. MacMurray is solid, but Barrymore is great as the "world's preeminent criminologist." Supporting cast includes Lynne Overman, Porter Hall, Hattie McDaniel, Richard Carle, Fritz Feld, Edgar Kennedy, Tom Dugan, Irving Bacon, and Gary Owen.

Lombard and Barrymore are tops!

I think a whole lot of people don't really get this film from the reviews I'm reading. Carol Lombard who likes to spin tall tales of exaggeration is married to poor, but honest lawyer Fred MacMurray and tries her best to help.

The key scene here in True Confessions is right at the beginning when Lombard fetches MacMurray a client who happens to be guilty. Someone should have told Fred that only Perry Mason can afford to represent innocent clients only. So when he declines to be a lawyer for a man who will pay him out of the stolen hams he swiped from a butcher shop, Carol decides that he needs a name acquittal to gain him clients.

When she goes for a job with lecherous millionaire John Murphy who later winds up dead and circumstantial evidence points to her, she 'confesses' kind of, sort of to exasperated police detective Edgar Kennedy. It's enough to get her arrested and her husband his first real client.

It's all kind of dumb, but Lombard's scheme is right out of the Lucy Ricardo playbook. The trial is one for the books as well with District Attorney Porter Hall letting victory slip through his fingers.

Another character pops in to almost upset the applecart. John Barrymore who was cast in the part at Lombard's request to repay the debt she owed him from Twentieth Century plays a 'criminologist' down on his luck who comes across some key evidence that could upset everyone's plans. Sadly though Barrymore does a great job in the part, he's really not acting at all. The role is a caricature of what Barrymore had become. But it was a payday and I'm sure he was grateful to Lombard somewhat.

Playing Ethel to Lombard's Lucy is Una Merkel, a role she'd done before and would again. Lombard's 'True Confession' scene with Kennedy is a priceless one.

I'm sure Fred MacMurray felt in this last of four films in which they were paired that Carole had a lot of 'Splaining to do'.

What a mess this thing is! Both lead characters are fools and irritating in the bargain. Carole's native intelligence shines through which actually weakens the movie since it reminds you that a woman obviously this smart would never do things so stupid. Fred's part is a dullard simp and even he would never believe the ridiculous things his wife comes up with. John Barrymore, or rather what's left of him at this point, is beyond hammy with another character that makes no sense. The only bright spot is Una Merkel who gives a sprightly, cute performance of the only person in the picture who seems like she would actually exist. Aside from her the movie is a dog.

The aspirant writer Helen Bartlett (Carole Lombard) and her husband, the lawyer Kenneth "Ken" Bartlett (Fred MacMurray) are facing financial difficulties, since Helen is a mediocre writer and compulsive liar and Ken is an ethical and honest lawyer and can not find clients. Ken does not want that Helen works, but she secretly accepts the job of secretary to work with her father's friend Otto Krayler (John T. Murray) having a high salary for a few working hours a day. However, she is lured by Krayler that harasses her and she leaves his apartment. Helen summons her best friend Daisy McClure (Una Merkel) to go with her to retrieve her coat and purse from the apartment. But Krayler is found dead and Helen becomes the prime suspect of the police. Ken believes that his wife killed Krayler to defend her honor in self-defense and he defends her in court. After the trial, Helen is blackmailed by the weird Charles "Charley" Jasper (John Barrymore).

"True Confession" is not the best screwball comedy, but makes laugh. The story is dated and Helen Bartlett is not a bright character, with silly and stupid attitudes that are funny, but not intelligent jokes. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Confissão de Mulher" ("Confession of Woman")

It's not often that Leonard Maltin puts down a vintage Hollywood 'classic' with top stars (calling it "alarmingly unfunny") – to find that same film, then, praised by an even more conservative critic as the late Leslie Halliwell seems even less likely (while conceding it has "longueurs and a lack of cinematic inventiveness", he considers it an "archetypal crazy comedy with many fine moments")…and, yet, that's just the case with this film! What's more, opinions about it continue to be mixed – as DVD Savant's unenthusing review ("truly a mess…really unsatisfying…this dog {of a comedy}" can attest!! So, I really didn't know what to expect here.

I actually enjoyed TRUE CONFESSION a lot and feel it's one of Carole Lombard's better vehicles – though not quite in the same league as her four top films, namely Howard Hawks' TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934), Gregory LaCava's MY MAN GODFREY (1936), William A. Wellman's NOTHING SACRED (1937) and Ernst Lubitsch's TO BE OR NOT OT BE (1942). The film has a wonderful premise: a female writer who's also a pathological liar admits to murder in order to promote the career of her struggling lawyer husband (who only takes a case if the accused is honest!).

As I said, Lombard is somewhere near her best here – especially disarming when adopting a literal tongue-in-cheek attitude as she's hatching a new 'plot'. Male lead Fred MacMurray – in his last of four teamings with her, three of which are included in Universal's Lombard Collection set – plays second fiddle to the star, but his courtroom plea commands attention (his naivete, then, is demonstrated when he and Lombard awkwardly re-enact the 'crime' for the benefit of judge and jury). Savant is especially harsh on John Barrymore (one of the great theatrical performers, he occasionally revealed himself a superb character comedian with an agreeable tendency to ham): I personally found his performance as an opportunist with a philosophical streak and an over-sized ego brilliant. He pesters Lombard's best friend, Una Merkel (herself a delightful comic actress and a reliable presence in many a 1930s film), in the courtroom by first blowing and then taking the air noisily out of balloons; eventually, he catches up with Lombard and MacMurray (the former being guilty of perjury for having confessed to a murder she didn't commit) and proposes a blackmail scheme – which, however, blows up in his face.

The supporting cast is equally well chosen: a typically nasty Porter Hall as the Prosecuting Attorney; Edgar Kennedy (the great Laurel & Hardy foil) is superb – and flustered as ever – in the role of the investigating cop; Tom Dugan, in one hilarious scene towards the beginning – the role is strikingly similar to that played by William Demarest in another Lombard/MacMurray vehicle I've just watched, HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE (1935); and Irving Bacon – again, his appearance is very brief but quite memorable as a befuddled coroner. The film was remade as CROSS MY HEART (1946), with Betty Hutton in Lombard's role – which I wouldn't mind watching if the opportunity ever arose, but don't really expect to be up to the original (even if Maltin actually thinks it's superior!).

Trivia: director Ruggles (incidentally, brother of comic Charles) had a curious connection with Carole Lombard; not only did he direct her and future husband Clark Gable in their only film together – NO MAN OF HER OWN (1932) – but SOMEWHERE I'LL FIND YOU (1942), also starring Gable…and which happened to be shooting at the time of Lombard's untimely and tragic death!!