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Confession (1955 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Confession', released in the United States as 'The Deadliest Sin', is a 1955 British drama film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Sydney Chaplin, Audrey Dalton and John Bentley.
Production
The film was made at Merton Park Studios by Anglo-Amalgamated. Along with 'Little Red Monkey', released the same year, the film was an international hit and led to the company producing films with a higher production quality than they had previously, often importing American stars to give the films more international appeal.
Plot
A man stands in a large church. He enters a confessional box and tells the priest: "I have killed a man, Father".
After the title sequence, Mike Nelson arrives at an idyllic English country cottage in a chauffeur-driven car. He has an American accent as he has been in the USA working in the oil business for many years. He is greeted enthusiastically by his sister, but his elderly, wheelchair-bound father is more reserved. His sister, Louise, shows him to his old room. Her fiance Alan is also in the house. Alone in his room he unlocks his suitcase and cuts open a secret compartment full of packs of dollar bills. He hides the suitcase in a wardrobe.
At dinner in the family home he is surprised to receive a phone call. He recognises the voice - someone has tracked him down.
He goes to the bank to change a $50 bill, receiving 17 10s, but a man approaches him in the bank and asks for his "cut". They arrange to meet near the house. Mike goes home and takes a pistol from his case. Mike goes to the rendezvous point, a remote spot near a railway shunting yard, a scuffle starts when he pulls the gun, but Alan materialises, picks up the pistol and shoots the man. He dies but they leave him there and drive off, they debate whether or not to tell the police.
Meanwhile the police find the body, and tyre tracks leading from the scene.
Alan is deeply religious and decides to confess his crime, where the film began, but as he receives absolution a shot rings out. An unseen assailant has killed Alan. The priest gives him the last rites. The priest refuses to tell the police what had been confessed. The police suggest he too may become a target. The police compare the bullets and (wrongly) decide that both bodies have been killed by the same man. The police decide to compare the tyre tracks from the first murder to Alan's car and find a match. The police discover that Mike's alibi, that he was in a local pub with Alan, is false, but they cannot work out the connection.
The police inspector takes Louise to dinner but gains no information, and ends up just upsetting her.
Mike goes to an upper class bar and a blonde picks him up. He goes back to her flat. She explains that her husband was kiled in the Korean War. But Mike reads a newspaper headline and slips out.
The police start to work out what happened but have no proof. The priest holds the key to a conviction. Meanwhile Mike decides to leave the country and go to South Africa and starts booking a flight.
In the house Louise lockpicks Mike's suitcase and finds both the cash and the pistol. Mike confronts her and then confesses what happened both next to the railway and in the church. He says the truth will kill their father.
The police try to set a trap using Louise but ultimately it is Mike's father who confronts him. Mike goes to the church (to kill the priest) but the police are watching. Mike hides in the organ loft and is just about to shoot the priest mid-service when the organ starts playing and throws him off aim. The police rush in, joined by Louise. Mike climbs to the bell tower but is out of bullets. As the clockwork begins he is deafened by the bell ringing and falls to his death.
Cast
*Sydney Chaplin as Mike Nelson
*Audrey Dalton as Louise Nelson
*John Bentley as Inspector Kessler
*Peter Hammond as Alan Poole
*John Welsh as Father Neil
*Jefferson Clifford as Pop Nelson
*Patrick Allen as Corey the murdered man
*Pat McGrath - Williams
*Robert Raglan as Becklan
*Betty Wolfe as Mrs. Poole, Alan's mother
*Richard Huggett as Young priest
*Eddie Stafford as Photographer
*Percy Herbert as Barman
*Felix Felton as Bar customer
*Dorinda Stevens as blonde in the bar
References
Bibliography
*Chibnall, Steve & McFarlane, Brian. 'The British 'B' Film'. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
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