Confidence Girl

Hillary Brooke and Tom Conway star in "Confidence Girl" from 1952. Partly done in a semidocumentary style, it tells the story of Mary Webb (Brooke) in the title role. Like my mother used to say, if these crooks put their intelligence toward doing something decent, they could rule the world.

Roger Kingsley (Conway) approaches an insurance company and tells them their department store is about to be ripped off by a confidence woman he's been trailing, one Mary Webb. He can catch her, but it will cost them $10,000; however, they'll get back their merchandise and get her off the streets. The insurance company agrees.

At the department store, an elderly woman, a confederate, looks at coats. While the coats she's looked at hang on a rack in front of her and the saleswoman has left to get another, Mary goes to the rack, takes a $15,000 coat (this is 1952 money), puts it on and leaves. And that's all I'll say.

There are a couple of more jobs, but there are plans for the big score -- Mary is to become a night club psychic so she can dazzle people and get private readings, during which she can encourage people to buy worthless stock that someone wants to unload.

Really entertaining B movie with good performances by a very dissipated looking Tom Conway and a glamorous Hillary Brooke. Well worth a look if you get the opportunity. These black and white B movies are often a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon.