Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, and John Barrymore star in “True Confession”

True Confession (1937) is an American screwball comedy directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, and John Barrymore. The supporting cast included Una Merkel, Porter Hall, Edgar Kennedy, Fritz Feld, and Hattie McDaniel.

Carole Lombard plays Helen Bartlett, a housewife and aspiring fiction writer. Helen is a habitual storyteller; she is often fast and loose with the truth. Helen bangs out short stories on her portable typewriter at home while her husband, Ken (MacMurray), tries to establish his fledgling law practice. He has a problem: he’s only interested in taking on clients who are truthful and innocent. He is the complete opposite of Helen. Ken’s refusal to take on “guilty” clients causes friction between the young couple struggling to make ends meet. Helen writes stories in an attempt to help with the family finances, which Ken resents. When Helen is conjuring up a lie, her tongue is planted firmly in her cheek, and you can see the wheels turning in her head.

When Helen applies for a private secretary position at an incredibly generous salary, her best friend, Daisy (Una Merkel), smells a rat. Helen’s boss, Otto Krayler (John T. Murray), really doesn’t want a secretary, but rather a playmate. On her very first day on the job, Krayler makes a pass at Helen and she quits in a huff. Later, she realizes that she left her hat and coat at Krayler’s lavish apartment. When she and Daisy go to retrieve them, the two discover that Krayler has been murdered and that, according to Detective Darsey (Edgar Kennedy), Helen is the prime suspect!

How is Helen going to get out of this mess?

 

Fred MacMurray, Carole Lombard, and John Barrymore

True Confession trivia

• Lombard lobbied to get John Barrymore hired to play Charlie Jasper. She also insisted that he get star billing.
• This was the fourth and final film that Lombard and Fred MacMurray made together. All four of their films were box office successes.
• True Confession was released within weeks of the more famous Lombard film Nothing Sacred. Ironically, True Confession was the bigger box office hit.
• The film was remade in 1946 as Cross My Heart starring Betty Hutton.
• This blogger thinks this film was a template for the I Love Lucy television situation comedy.

 

Click HERE to watch the movie on the Internet Movie Archive.

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Una Merkel, Carol Lombard

Discussion questions

1. Why do you think Lombard fans preferred this film over Nothing Sacred, released the same year?
2. Was Lombard believable as a congenital liar?
3. What did you think of the girlfriend chemistry between Lombard and Una Merkel? Did their friendship remind you of another famous girlfriend team?
4. As noted in the trivia section, this was the fourth and last film that MacMurray and Lombard made. Did you think they had good on-screen chemistry?
5. What did you think of John Barrymore’s performance? Was Lombard right in insisting he be cast in the role of Charlie Jasper?
6. Did the film remind you of any other films you’ve seen?

Carole Lombard and Una Merkel in "True Confession": Inspiration for "I Love Lucy?"

I Love Lucy was a landmark in television history. The original series ran for six years on CBS and for four of those years was the top-rated TV show in the country. One of the dynamics that made the show work so well was the relationship between Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) and her neighbor and best friend Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance). Lucy was always getting into trouble and Ethel, trying to help her friend, always seemed to get caught up in Lucy’s crazy schemes. These schemes usually centered on Lucy’s attempts to break into show business and trying to establish a career of her own, much to the dismay of her husband Ricky.

Similar sitcom scenarios are played out today, but it was all new during TV’s Golden Age. Did you ever wonder where Ball got her major inspiration? It’s no secret that Ball adored Carole Lombard. Lombard was sort of a mentor to Ball when both were working at the RKO studio. Lombard was one of the few truly beautiful movie stars who wasn’t afraid to be silly on screen. She also wasn’t concerned about making faces, which took away from her glamour. Lombard was adored by the public and was glamorous enough to snag the “King” of Hollywood, Clark Gable.

Publicity shot of Carole Lombard

During the mid-to-late 1930s, Lombard was America’s “screwball girl.” She made her mark with classic comedies like Hands Across the Table (1935), My Man Godfrey (1936), and Nothing Sacred (1937). One comedy that was a huge hit in 1937, but isn’t well remember today is True Confession. The film, directed by Welsley Ruggles also stars Fred MacMurray, Una Merkel, and John Barrymore. Lombard plays Helen Bartlett a housewife and aspiring fiction writer. Helen is a habitual storyteller; she is often fast and loose with the truth—just like Lucy. Helen bangs out short stories on her portable typewriter at home while her husband Ken (MacMurray) tries to establish his fledgling law practice. He has a problem: he’s only interested in taking on clients that are truthful and innocent. He is the complete opposite of Helen. Ken’s refusal to take on “guilty” clients causes friction between the young couple struggling to make ends meet. Helen writes stories in an attempt to help with the family finances, which Ken resents.When Helen is conjuring up a lie, her tongue is planted firmly in her cheek and you can see the wheels turning in her head—shades of Lucy.

Lombard and Una Merkel in a jam

Helen’s best friend, Daisy McClure (Merkel) knows Helen is a liar, but she still manages to get tangled up in whatever crazy caper Helen finds herself in the midst of. When Lombard and Merkel’s characters interact with each other, it’s hard not to think of Lucy and Ethel. The dynamic is amazingly similar and their on-screen chemistry is genuinely appealing—just like Ball’s and Vance’s. And just like Ball and Vance, both women are attractive, but Lombard is the more glamorous of the two with Merkel never outshining her costar.

When Helen applies for a private secretary position at an incredibly generous salary, the wiser Daisy, smells a rat. Helen’s boss Otto Krayler (John T. Murray) really doesn’t want a secretary, but rather a playmate. On her very fist day on the job, Krayler makes a pass at Helen and she quits in a huff. Later she realizes that she left her hat and coat at Krayler’s lavish apartment. When she and Daisy go to retrieve them, the two discover that Krayler has been murdered and that according to detective Darsey (Edgar Kennedy) Helen is the prime suspect.

Vivian Vance and Lucille Ball in trouble

As goofy as Helen’s character is, she has some genuine qualities. She truly loves her husband, even if her lying ways often work against their relationship. As a way to get her husband some favorable publicity as a lawyer and to avoid telling him that she took a job behind his back, Helen confesses to killing Krayler in self-defense, which isn’t true. Helen believes that if her husband successfully defends her, his career will be set—sounds like a plan Lucy might dream up.

Helen has lied so many times to Ken that at this point it’s harder for her to tell the truth. In jail, Lombard is dressed in a simple black outfit. With the blouse’s large white collar and her hair combed back, she looks like Greta Garbo in Queen Christina. Lombard did a beautifully funny imitation of a Garbo-like character a year earlier in The Princess Comes Across.

Daisy, always the loyal friend—Ethel all the way—goes to Helen’s trial that is also attended by an odd man named Charley Jasper (Barrymore) who thinks Helen is innocent, but keeps this to himself. He is generally obnoxious, resorting to blowing up balloons then letting the air out slowly, disrupting the court proceedings.

Coming up with another scheme

Ken manages to successfully defend Helen—with some hysterical courtroom acting—and she is a free woman. With all the publicity generated at the trial, Helen is now a celebrity on the lecture circuit and has a best-selling autobiography (My Life, My Struggle). Daisy now works with Helen as private secretary and story collaborator. Ken has a thriving law career and the two seem to have everything, but the truth stands in the way of their happiness. Because of Helen’s habitual lying—with the ultimate lie pretending to be a murderer—their marriage isn’t what it should be.

Ball wasn't afraid to look silly.

Just when you think things couldn’t get any more complicated, Charley Jasper shows up with Krayler’s wallet and blackmail on his mind. Ken comes to the rescue, but the “truth” about Helen is revealed and Ken has had enough. At their new lake house, where Ken and Helen now have a maid, (Hattie McDaniel), Helen and Daisy walk along the lake in the late afternoon. Helen reflects on the mess she’s made of her life, even though she has the money and success she’s always craved. Afraid she’s going to lose her husband, Helen comes up with one more lie that seems to keep the marriage together. The movie ends with Ken throwing Helen over his shoulder and you’re left wondering what new caper (lie) she’ll dream up next—just like Lucy!

True Confession was popular with the critics of the day and a huge box office hit. It was the fourth and final collaboration between Lombard and MacMurray who had earlier starred together in Hands Across The Table (1935), The Princess Comes Across, (1936) and Swing High, Swing Low, Paramount’s top grossing film of 1937. Nothing Sacred, released the same year as True Confession, and considered a classic today wasn’t nearly as commercially successful. Both films were released on Thanksgiving Day, 1937.

Fred MacMurray, Lombard, and John Barrymore in publicity photo for True Confession

Backstory: Lombard was responsible for casting John Barrymore in the supporting role of Charley Jasper. At this point in his career, producers were reluctant to hire him due to his alcoholism and his refusal to memorize his lines (he read them from cue cards). But Lombard never forgot her big break in Twentieth Century, a film in which Barrymore was the top-billed star. She learned a lot from Barrymore during that production and she was forever grateful. She even gave him star billing alongside herself and MacMurray. Lombard was a true and faithful friend.

Great films of 1939: Screening of “Midnight” January 16 at Daystar Center

Great films of 1939: Midnight
Where: The Venue 1550 at the Daystar Center, 1550 S. State Street, Chicago, IL
When: January 16, 2016
Time: 6:45 p.m.
Hosted by Stephen Reginald

A rainy night in Paris
Midnight is a delightful romantic screwball comedy starring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche. Colbert plays Eve Peabody, a down-on-her-luck showgirl stuck in Paris on a miserable rainy night. Ameche plays Tibor Czerny, a Hungarian cab driver, working in The City of Light, who takes pity on her. Pity turns to attraction, for both Tibor and Eve, but Eve is set on the finer things in life.

Pawn ticket to paradise
After Tibor has driven Eve to all the cabarets in Paris helping her find work as a blues singer, Eve slips out of Tibor’s cab while he’s getting gas. Dressed in a beautiful evening gown—the only garment she owns after losing all her money in Monte Carlo—Eve wanders into a society party to get out of the rain, using a pawn ticket as her invitation. Eve relaxes into a comfortable chair while she listens to the party’s entertainment: an overweight soprano and a very serious pianist. Stephanie (Hedda Hopper), the party host, is alerted to the fact that someone entered the party with a pawn ticket. While interrupting the pianist, she asks if anyone in the room is or knows a Eve Peabody. As Colbert sinks into her chair, she is rescued from discovery.

From bridge game to high society
Before you know it, Eve is playing bridge with rich society swells Helen Flammarion (Mary Astor), Jacques Picot (Francis Lederer), and Marcel Renaud (Rex O’Malley). When Eve asks him why he picked her to be his partner, Marcel responds, “You looked charming, you looked bored, and you looked as though you wouldn’t trump your partner’s ace.” Eve introduces herself as Madame Czerny from Hungary and Jacques is smitten with her. His current lover, Helen, is enjoying the card game less and less. In the background is George Flammarion, Helen’s husband who knows his wife is having an affair with Picot, but is still in love with her.

from left to right: Mary Astor, Don Ameche, Rex O'Malley, Francis Lederer, Claudette Colbert, and John Barrymore

The further along Eve’s deception goes, the more complicated it gets, especially when Tibor shows up at the Flammarion’s estate unannounced during a high society party. Will Tibor give Eve away or will he help keep her secret?

Midnight, a clever twist on the Cinderella tale, is a delightful romp with a brilliantly witty script by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. It’s directed with a classy polish by Mitchell Leisen, a director who isn’t as well known today as he should be.

A popular commercial and critical success Midnight garnered this praise on April 6, 1939 from New York Times reviewer Frank S. Nugent:

“The ice went out of the river at the Paramount [theater] yesterday, and Spring came laughing in with “Midnight,” one of the liveliest, gayest, wittiest and naughtiest comedies of a long hard season. Its direction, by Mitchell Leisen, is strikingly reminiscent of that of the old Lubitsch… Pictures like “Midnight” should strike more often.”

We couldn’t agree more!

Have some Joe and Enjoy the Show!

Before the movie, grab a cup of coffee from Overflow Coffee Bar, located within the Daystar Center. You can bring food and beverages into the auditorium; we even have small tables set up next to some of the seats. General Admission: $5 Students and Senior Citizens: $3.

Join the Chicago Film club; join the discussion

Twice a month we screen classic films and have a brief discussion afterward. For more information, including how to join (it’s free), click here. The Venue 1550 is easily accessible by the CTA. Please visit Transit Chicago for more information on transportation options.

Stephen Reginald is a freelance writer and editor. He has worked at various positions within the publishing industry for over 25 years. Most recently he was executive editor for McGraw-Hill’s The Learning Group Division. A long-time amateur student of film, Reginald hosts “Chicago Film Club,” a monthly movie event held in the South Loop, for the past two years. Reginald has also taught several adult education film classes at Facets Film School, Chicago.

Daystar Center located at 1550 S. State St. works through a grassroots network of collaborations and partnerships with individuals and other nonprofit organizations. Through this web, they’re able to provide educational, cultural, and civic activities that enrich and empower their clients, guests, and community members. To learn more about classes and events offered at the Daystar Center, please visit their Web site.

From star to superstar: Carole Lombard Breaks Out

If 1936 was a watershed year for Carole Lombard, 1937 wasn't too bad either. Lombard starred in three films released in 1937, all of which were critical and box office successes. Swing High, Swing Low was the highest grossing film for Paramount Studios in 1937 as well as being one of the biggest box office hits of the year.

Lombard and MacMurray: Together again
Swing High, Swing Low was directed by Mitchell Leisen and costarred Lombard, once again, with Fred MacMurray. Not well regarded today because it seems to be one part screwball comedy, one part melodrama, and one part musical. What seemed innovative and inventive when first released seems a bit muddled and confusing to modern viewers. Frank S. Nugent in the New York Times wrote, "Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray skip through the formula devices of "Swing High, Swing Low" (nee "Burlesque") with their usual ease at the Paramount, raising a routine story to a routine-plus picture. The plus is extremely small, sometimes being almost invisible." Nugent ended his review by stating, "Its players really are worthy of better treatment." Still it has its moments and the Lombard/MacMurray chemistry delighted film-going audiences and most other contemporary film critics.

Lombard's next film for 1937 would be the much-heralded Nothing Sacred, costarring Fredric March with a script by Ben Hecht and direction by William A. Wellman. Produced by David O. Selznick, the film was given the A-treatment. Selznick spared no expense when it came to the film's production, including filming it in Technicolor, still a rare event in the late 1930s, especially for comedies. Nothing Sacred has the distinction of being the only color film Lombard ever made. The story goes that some people went to see the film just to get a glimpse of Lombard's beauty in color and they weren't disappointed: she looks luminous.

She's the top

One of the ironies of Lombard's career is how quickly she began to eclipse the stars that she used to support. In 1934, Lombard appeared with Fredric March in The Eagle and the Hawk, a film in which he received top billing. In less than three year's time, Lombard was the bigger star when they made Nothing Sacred, with her name above March's. Cary Grant, who also starred in The Eagle and the Hawk, billed above Lombard, but below March, would be billed under Lombard in In Name Only, released in 1939. In a relatively short period, Lombard was becoming one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.

Liar, liar
Lombard's last release of 1937 was True Confession,  with MacMurray and John Barrymore, her costar (again she's the bigger star now) from her breakthrough film, Twentieth Century. True Confession stars Lombard as a struggling fiction writer and habitual liar. MacMurray, her husband, is a straight-arrow lawyer who will only defend people he knows aren't guilty. Since they're both working hard to make ends meet, Lombard just doesn't understand how her husband can be so choosy about who he represents. To help out with the finances, Lombard secretly takes a job that doesn't require any skills, but pays a remarkable $50 for not even a full week's work! It doesn't take long for Lombard to realize that the job is mistress to the boss. Being an honorable, if a bit daffy wife, she quits almost immediately. When her boss ends up dead, with Lombard implicated in his murder, she concocts a story that helps get her acquitted of the murder and generates publicity to further her husband's law career.

True Confession was directed by Wesley Ruggles, who directed Lombard in No Man of Her Own. Ruggles was an early champion of Lombard's, considering her an actress of great depth and potential. Unfortunately for Lombard, Ruggles didn't run the the star factory at Paramount, where she was under contract, or her star might have risen sooner.

With three hit films, both commercially and critically, it seemed as if anything Lombard touched would turn to gold. Her relationship with Clark Gable was blossoming and her film career was approaching its zenith. But for Lombard, there were still more things she wanted to accomplish as a star and as an actress. The next few years would test her talent, resolve, and resiliency.

Carole Lombard: The Divine Screwball

19th-century pitcher Rube Waddell

A genre and a star is born
With the exception of perhaps Cary Grant, no movie star has been more identified with screwball comedy than Carole Lombard. In fact, if it weren’t for Lombard, the genre might not have received its name. “Miss Lombard has played screwball dames before…she needs only a resin bag to be a female Rube Waddell.” So said Variety in 1936, comparing Lombard’s performance, as Irene Bullock in My Man Godfrey, to the nineteenth-century baseball legend known for his screwball pitches.

 
Risk taker
From her breakthrough role in Twentieth Century (1934) opposite John Barrymore, it was apparent that a comic genius was born. Lombard could have become a typical Hollywood leading lady on her movie star looks alone, but instead she jumped head-first into screwball comedies, taking on roles that often downplayed her natural beauty. She took comedic risks that few women in Hollywood were willing to take and it paid off big time. The public loved Lombard, and they loved her screwball heroines.

At the top of her game
By the mid-1930s, Lombard was one of the top box office draws, besting Janet Gaynor, Bette Davis, Jean Harlow, and Katherine Hepburn. She was also on a winning streak with films like Hands Across the Table, Love Before Breakfast, The Princess Comes Across, My Man Godfrey, and Nothing Sacred.

Carole Lombard and William Powell in My Man Godfrey

Enduring popularity
Lombard tried her hand at drama with some success, but the public loved her screwball persona best and it’s the comedies that have endured. Even by today’s standards, Lombard’s performances seem strikingly fresh and contemporary. If it wasn't for her untimely death in 1942, who knows what heights she could have reached. Even so, few have risen so high.

Every Cinderella has Her "Midnight"

Midnight, directed by Mitchell Leisen, with a script by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, and released by Paramount Pictures, is one of the great movies of 1939. It stars Claudette Colbert as a down-on-her-luck American showgirl in Paris and Don Ameche as a Hungarian cabdriver. Colbert offers to pay Ameche double his fare if he agrees to drive her around looking for work as a blues singer. After making the rounds of dozens of Paris nightspots, Colbert gives up and decides to go back to the train station to spend the night.

A smitten Ameche buys her dinner and offers her his apartment to rest in while he drives his cab all night. Although tempted, Colbert doesn't take Ameche up on his offer. Dressed in a glamorous evening gown (the only clothes she has, of course), Colbert escapes into the night. While walking by a Parisian mansion, Colbert is mistaken for a party guest and gains entrance to a society event using a pawn ticket as her invitation. The scam works and Colbert successfully mixes with the upper classes. To keep her scam going, Colbert impersonates a Hungarian countess, aided and abetted by the aristocratic John Barrymore.

Barrymore's wife, Mary Astor, thinks she's in love with playboy and champagne heir Francis Lederer. To help win his wife back, Barrymore enlist the help of the "countess." The plan is for Colbert to get Lederer to fall in love with her, keeping him out of Astor's arms.

The action really heats up at Barrymore and Astor's country mansion. Will Colbert's cover as a countess be exposed by a jealous Ameche? Will Barrymore be able to reconcile with Astor? The answers to all these questions explodes during one of the strangest breakfast meals in film history. The pace picks up  and the stories and aliases that Colbert and Barrymore cook up become wilder and more complicated...and more and more hilarious.

At this stage in his career, Barrymore refused to memorize scripts, so he read his lines from cue cards. It's impossible to tell that he's reading his lines and he steals every scene he's in. Colbert is in top form, her comic timing impeccable. Ameche, no slouch in the comedy department, holds his own as the lovesick cabbie. Astor and Lederer are also perfect in their respective roles.

Midnight is one of Leisen's best directorial efforts. The complicated mistaken identities, double entendres are classic Wilder. A screwball comedy with elegance and charm, Midnight deserves its place as one of the great films of 1939.