Two slick con-artists plan to cap their success with a really big score by impersonating a psychic.Actors Brooke and Conway together at last. In fact, shady sophistication doesn't come any better. Except here, Brooke's Mary is given a battered conscience, compromising her usual icy demeanor, while Conway's Kingsley manages his usual suave persona. The movie starts out really well with a couple of slick swindle operations by the two. Gypping the greedy pawnshop owner is both cleverly done and perversely satisfying. But then, when Mary goes into a stage act and private dick Kingsley hangs around the police station like a regular cop, the narrative becomes a real stretch. After all, that big swindle operation in the nightclub must involve fifty collaborators, any one of which could blow the whole fake mind-reading act. At the same time, would real cops let a shady PI go along with them on official business. Too bad, the con game springs a leak after such a clever start.Impresario Stone appears unsure about how much documentary approach to use. After all, this was a time when Dragnet's semi-documentary style was lighting up TV sets. Nonetheless, the movie's very well mounted, using abundant location shots and persuasive interiors. And I really like Stone's boldness in using a nearly obese Kruschen as a cop at a time when movie cops looked anything but. All in all, however, it's a movie that shows early promise before believability begins to scatter.

"Confidence Girl" is a very frustrating film. The first half is clever and exciting. Yet, inexplicably, the entire pace and style of the film chances midway through--and the quality of the production sinks.When the film begins, a special investigator, Roger Kingsley (Tom Conway), meets with the police about a confidence woman he's been pursuing, Mary Webb (Hillary Brooke). He even gets department store managers and police to help him in his hunt for the woman. The only problem is, she is Kingsley's partner! And, for much of the film, Webb swindles people right and left while in some cases Kingsley helps her and in others he misdirects the police. This is all very clever and exciting and it hooked me.I have no idea why, but a bit later, instead of all these many scams, Kingsley devises a very, very, very elaborate mind-reading routine starring Webb. As I said, it's elaborate and it takes so much money and so many confederates that it's utterly ridiculous. The scheme works very well--and they wait to make a big score. However, when a murder occurs in town, the cocky Kingsley insists they should incorporate this into the act. As for Webb, she goes along for a while but when she realizes she MUST act or someone else will be killed, she goes to the police.Aside from the second half being ridiculous and fitting poorly into the first part, the film hinges on a sociopathic woman suddenly caring enough to alert the police--saving someone's life but also dooming her to prison. If this woman steals and hurts people throughout the film, who in their right mind would believe that she suddenly is bothered by her conscience?! Overall, a movie that starts very well but takes an unexpected detour to Dumb-Dumb City! Not worth your time.

It starts off as a typical police procedural with a brief introductory spiel by a Los Angeles police official warning against the confidence game, then proceeds to tell the case of Mary Webb (Brooke) and her association with Roger Kingsley (Conway).This was one intricately plotted film that starts off with a nice twist following confidence girl Webb and her associates through various cons, culminating in an elaborate phony mentalist night club act. Hillary Brooke looks great and does a convincing turn as Webb, Tom Conway (George Sander's brother) is her equal, believable. I've been familiar with Brooke from when I was a kid she was a regular, the blond bombshell that all the guys in Patterson on the Abbott & Costello TV show, were crazy about. Didn't realize she was a home girl (Astoria, NY) until I saw her bio. She shines.Very similar to The Sting, but in my opinion even better for the 50s location sequences, check it out for yourselves. 8/10 Streaming on Netfix

Confidence Girl (1952)Oh boy, such a clever idea, something like "The Sting" in its elaborate conniving to con a bunch of people out of their dough. And such strained acting, too. I found it totally fun but only in that way you kick back and watch, say, "My Three Sons" and enjoy it even though you know there isn't much to it. "Confidence Girl" is actually better than most 1960s television, and it's fast paced enough to never let you go. And the photography is really good. But keep your expectations in check.The title comes from the idea that a woman builds up trust in some victims in a scam situation so that other conspirators can do their sting later. The classic one early on demonstrates how a woman persuades a pawnbroker that she has found a valuable violin in his shop and will pay $10,000 for it, but he has to get permission from the owner first. The pawnbroker thinks, oh boy, I'll buy it for a few hundred dollars and sell it to the woman for a huge profit. The owner, of course, is a collaborator who refuses to sell it until the price is close to $10,000. The pawnbroker is still thinking he'll make a quick couple thousand--and then the woman, who has left only her phone number and hotel room, backs out of the deal.Fun. It could have been better made in a million little ways, but it isn't half bad as is, a B-movie through and through, and brief, too. Some great scenes shot not in a studio but on location. Produced, directed, and written by one man, which is okay if you are Stanley Kubrick or Woody Allen, but not when you are Andrew Stone, it seems, because there are too many gaps and weak spots to really keep it convincing.