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Nutshell Review: True Confession (1937)
Director: Wesley Ruggles Starring: Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, John Barrymore, Una Merkel Studio: Paramount My IBDB Rating: 7 Viewing: Carole Lombard: The Glamour Collection DVD Universal Home Ent |
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Plot:
Carole Lombard plays Helen Bartlett, a habitual liar accused of murder. Instead of admitting the truth, that she didn’t kill the man, she concocts a self-defense story to help her struggling attorney husband, played by MacMurray. He gets her acquitted for the murder, but must hide the truth because he’s a stickler for the truth. Fame & fortune find the couple ensconced in a lake side home; he a famous lawyer & she a published novelist, until drunken, self-proclaimed criminologist Charley Jasper (Barrymore) comes to claim his share of the lie. Admitting to MacMurray that he committed the crime, Jasper exposes Helen’s lie, triggering MacMurray to flee, only to be brought back by several attempted lies by Helen, including her pregnancy, then finally the truth…that they love each other.
Carole Lombard plays Helen Bartlett, a habitual liar accused of murder. Instead of admitting the truth, that she didn’t kill the man, she concocts a self-defense story to help her struggling attorney husband, played by MacMurray. He gets her acquitted for the murder, but must hide the truth because he’s a stickler for the truth. Fame & fortune find the couple ensconced in a lake side home; he a famous lawyer & she a published novelist, until drunken, self-proclaimed criminologist Charley Jasper (Barrymore) comes to claim his share of the lie. Admitting to MacMurray that he committed the crime, Jasper exposes Helen’s lie, triggering MacMurray to flee, only to be brought back by several attempted lies by Helen, including her pregnancy, then finally the truth…that they love each other.
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Thoughts:
Lombard is at her screwball best in True Confession, with her tongue literally placed firmly in cheek as she concocts one crazy story/lie after another. While not as strong as her very best, Twentieth Century, Nothing Sacred & My Man Godfrey, True Confession is an enjoyable piece of the Lombard filmography. Her interplay with MacMurray, with whom she made 4 films while at Paramount, is stellar, punctuated by the manic scene in the jail cell where she confesses, proclaims innocence and confesses again, all the while egged on by MacMurray. The quick witted mind of Helen is wonderfully transparent in the hands of the gifted comedian Lombard, as her eyes shift, her eyebrows raise & her nose crinkles as she concocts the wonderful yarns that keep the plot moving. A talented physical comedian as well, Lombard is not shy about letting her grace & beauty play second fiddle to the slapstick mayhem her part requires (her Mack Sennett training is always just below the surface of her best performances).
Wesley Ruggles (I’m No Angel-’33), who directed 3 films with Carole (No Man of Her Own & Bolero), more than any other director, seemingly understands that to enjoy Lombard is to let her go. She admitted in fact that Ruggles brought out her naturalness, allowing her to act by instinct, therefore not at all. She could just be (Swindell, p. 227). Her naturalness is clearly evident in the courtroom reenactment, where her casual interplay with a malfunctioning door is hilarious, as well as her swimming scene, where her fake drowning turns into real drowning at the flip of a switch. She really is a joy to watch, and by all accounts enjoyed the process of making movies more than most actors before or since, as evidenced by the ease in which she portrays zaniness in a believable way.
Barrymore’s Japser is the perfect foil to Lombard’s Helen and their scenes together are a wonderful juxtaposition of simplicity for Lombard & scene chewing for Barrymore. His scenes in the bar, where he explains that balloons are life and then later at the lake house where he tries his blackmail scheme hint at the greatness that once was Barrymore’s. As he slowly lets the air out of the balloon, explaining that while we were all once round and full life seeps out of us all, there is a focus that is often lacking in his later work and the moment echoes of a realization that was true for the character, but also true for Barrymore.
Made in 1937, when the Production Code was in full effect didn’t stop Ruggles & screenwriter Claude Binyon from slipping some sly sexual innuendo into the proceedings. The very nature of Helen’s job, a ‘private secretary’ working 3 hours a day for $50 a week, was code for mistress. The fact that the butler rolled his eyes as he offered to show Helen to her ‘room’, her friend would question the job description (“that’s not all you’re gonna learn”) & the floozy (Toby Wing) would testify that she couldn’t take dictation were all clearly road markers to 1930’s audiences that sex was the driving force of the position. Without saying it overtly the production was able to get by the censors and add a little naughtiness to the movie. Even sex between married people had to be alluded to, as when MacMurray sweeps Lombard off her feet in the final shot saying “I’m going to make one last attempt to get you to stop lying” while carrying her off to ‘make the baby’ she had just lied about.
Category: Screwball Comedy
See Also: His Girl Friday, Awful Truth, Ninotchka, Libeled Lady
Random Notes & Quotes:
*By the time True Confession went before the cameras John Barrymore’s career had bottomed out to such a degree due to chronic alcoholism, that he was largely relegated to ‘B’ level pictures at Paramount such as the Bulldog Drummond series. Carole insisted that he be given the part of Jasper and had the screenwriters enhance the role.
*While on location at Lake Arrowhead for the finale Lombard invited Clark Gable to visit, although it was known to the two of them that Gable’s wife Ria has round the clock private detectives tailing him. They were, however, able to celebrate Lombard’s 29th birthday in relative peace.
*Nothing Sacred, shot first and taking nearly twice as long to shoot and even longer to edit ( due to Technicolor) was released on Thanksgiving day 1937, the same day as True Confession.
*Noted author Graham Greene called True Confession the best comedy of the year for 1937.
*Critical & Box Office acclaim led many to believe that Lombard would be nominated for an Academy Award, but she was not among the 5 finalists, saying “they don’t give awards to comedies” without bitterness, but certainly with disappointment.
Lombard is at her screwball best in True Confession, with her tongue literally placed firmly in cheek as she concocts one crazy story/lie after another. While not as strong as her very best, Twentieth Century, Nothing Sacred & My Man Godfrey, True Confession is an enjoyable piece of the Lombard filmography. Her interplay with MacMurray, with whom she made 4 films while at Paramount, is stellar, punctuated by the manic scene in the jail cell where she confesses, proclaims innocence and confesses again, all the while egged on by MacMurray. The quick witted mind of Helen is wonderfully transparent in the hands of the gifted comedian Lombard, as her eyes shift, her eyebrows raise & her nose crinkles as she concocts the wonderful yarns that keep the plot moving. A talented physical comedian as well, Lombard is not shy about letting her grace & beauty play second fiddle to the slapstick mayhem her part requires (her Mack Sennett training is always just below the surface of her best performances).
Wesley Ruggles (I’m No Angel-’33), who directed 3 films with Carole (No Man of Her Own & Bolero), more than any other director, seemingly understands that to enjoy Lombard is to let her go. She admitted in fact that Ruggles brought out her naturalness, allowing her to act by instinct, therefore not at all. She could just be (Swindell, p. 227). Her naturalness is clearly evident in the courtroom reenactment, where her casual interplay with a malfunctioning door is hilarious, as well as her swimming scene, where her fake drowning turns into real drowning at the flip of a switch. She really is a joy to watch, and by all accounts enjoyed the process of making movies more than most actors before or since, as evidenced by the ease in which she portrays zaniness in a believable way.
Barrymore’s Japser is the perfect foil to Lombard’s Helen and their scenes together are a wonderful juxtaposition of simplicity for Lombard & scene chewing for Barrymore. His scenes in the bar, where he explains that balloons are life and then later at the lake house where he tries his blackmail scheme hint at the greatness that once was Barrymore’s. As he slowly lets the air out of the balloon, explaining that while we were all once round and full life seeps out of us all, there is a focus that is often lacking in his later work and the moment echoes of a realization that was true for the character, but also true for Barrymore.
Made in 1937, when the Production Code was in full effect didn’t stop Ruggles & screenwriter Claude Binyon from slipping some sly sexual innuendo into the proceedings. The very nature of Helen’s job, a ‘private secretary’ working 3 hours a day for $50 a week, was code for mistress. The fact that the butler rolled his eyes as he offered to show Helen to her ‘room’, her friend would question the job description (“that’s not all you’re gonna learn”) & the floozy (Toby Wing) would testify that she couldn’t take dictation were all clearly road markers to 1930’s audiences that sex was the driving force of the position. Without saying it overtly the production was able to get by the censors and add a little naughtiness to the movie. Even sex between married people had to be alluded to, as when MacMurray sweeps Lombard off her feet in the final shot saying “I’m going to make one last attempt to get you to stop lying” while carrying her off to ‘make the baby’ she had just lied about.
Category: Screwball Comedy
See Also: His Girl Friday, Awful Truth, Ninotchka, Libeled Lady
Random Notes & Quotes:
*By the time True Confession went before the cameras John Barrymore’s career had bottomed out to such a degree due to chronic alcoholism, that he was largely relegated to ‘B’ level pictures at Paramount such as the Bulldog Drummond series. Carole insisted that he be given the part of Jasper and had the screenwriters enhance the role.
*While on location at Lake Arrowhead for the finale Lombard invited Clark Gable to visit, although it was known to the two of them that Gable’s wife Ria has round the clock private detectives tailing him. They were, however, able to celebrate Lombard’s 29th birthday in relative peace.
*Nothing Sacred, shot first and taking nearly twice as long to shoot and even longer to edit ( due to Technicolor) was released on Thanksgiving day 1937, the same day as True Confession.
*Noted author Graham Greene called True Confession the best comedy of the year for 1937.
*Critical & Box Office acclaim led many to believe that Lombard would be nominated for an Academy Award, but she was not among the 5 finalists, saying “they don’t give awards to comedies” without bitterness, but certainly with disappointment.
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