ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION - Hugo Haas - "The Kind Of Girl Every Man Wants" (1953)

1953 was a simpler time, and tonight's feature titled "One Girl's Confession" is a simple movie I have to confess, and I'm not even a girl! Welcome to the midweek 'It's Time To Pay' version of The Dungeon!

I bought this DVD to see Cleo Moore, and instead I ended up finding out everything there was about Hugo Haas instead, who was a most interesting character! Hugo wrote, acted in, directed, and produced "One Girl's Confession!" The man had cajones!

What can I say? This is such a classic woman on a beach shot, even if it is phoney as Hell!

The fantasy is over and now it's time to get to work!

The music in this movie was written by Václav Divina, and if you listen to this clip, you'll hear all the guys whistling and catcallin' when Cleo enters the scene! She's a waitress in this dump! Her name is Mary Adams, and she's late for work!

The boorish local patrons just can't seem to keep their hands off of her, but Mary is a good gal, and she just takes it all in stride!

Mary's employer (Leonid Snegoff) is an ass, but he's been taking care of her for a long time, ever since her Dad died, but she also knows that he responsible for robbing her Father of a great deal of money!

This is the way we're all gonna be taking baths in the near future in California unless something happens pretty damn quick!

Then one night Mary decides to take things into her own hands, and she steals the cash box from the old man, and the twenty-five thousand dollars inside it!

Mary hides the money, and when she is confronted by the police, she confesses to the whole thing, except, she won't tell them where she hid the money! She's sentenced to something like ten years, but she's so damn cheerful and nice, she gets out in just a couple of years!

The old place is gone, so Mary spots a 'waitress wanted' sign in another dive, and asks the owner, an obsessive gambler, for a job!! The owner's name is Dragomie Damitrof, and he's played by the man of the hour, Hugo Haas!

In the 'Life's Just Not Fair' department, Cleouna Moore died of a heart attack at the age of 48!

Hugo was a comedic character actor who decided he wanted to be calling all the shots later in his career, and he's pretty damn good at it!

Dragomie's main squeeze is a gal called Smooch! Smooch is played by Helene Stanton in her first big screen role! She went on to be in "Jungle Moon Men," and "The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues!" While she pretends to doze off here, when Dragomie's not looking, she's grabbing bills, and stuffing them in her top!

Mary's frustrated suitor is a fisherman named Johnny played by Glenn (HANGOVER SQUARE,  THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE) Langan! Glenn didn't just have a bit part in "The Amazing Colossal Man," he was "The Amazing Colossal Man!"

So Dragomie lost all his money and the bar in a card game, vaguely reminiscent of "Carnival Rock, so Mary, being the nice person that she is, tells him where she buried the money! He comes back all frustrated and tells her that he couldn't find it! A couple of days later, he's back in business, partying in the penthouse, and Mary is like WTF!? I liked this guy, I tried to help him because he helped me, and now he's ripped me off!

Mary sits outside of Dragomie's apartment and watches all the partying silhouettes on the shade!

Hugo's like Hell Yeah, I wrote, directed, and produced this film, and I'm going to enjoy myself!

This shot is just so silly I had to use it! When all the partygoers are gone, Mary goes into Drag's room to confront him, but he's so drunk, he's barely conscious! He grabs onto her, and in an attempt to get away, she clocks him in the head with an empty champagne bottle, and as far as she can tell, he's dead!

I'd have a cool lamp like that in my home, but my wife would divorce me!

As it turns out, Drag wasn't dead, and he also didn't steal Mary's money! He had won it all back the following night in another card game, so it's pretty much a happy ending for everybody, except that Mary gave her money away to an orphanage by mistake, but at least she's still got Johnny!

"One Girl's Confession" is just one of four films on this two DVD set called "Bad Girls Of Film Noir Volume 2!" I swear I got a copy for under ten bucks a couple of months ago on Amazon, and now it's $22.00, but I see they have used copies for under $10.00 in case you're interested!