cult film freak: TOM CONWAY TEAMS WITH HILLARY BROOKE IN 'CONFIDENCE GIRL'

Year: 1952 Rating: ***1/2

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...

Hillary Brooke in CONFIDENCE GIRL

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.