FULL CONFESSION

US, 1939, 75 minutes, Black and white.
Victor Mc Laglan, Sally Eillers, Joseph Calleia, Barry Fitzgerald.
Directed by John Farrow.

Full Confession is a small melodrama of the late 1930s. It is very much in the vein of the B-budget thrillers and prison action films of the decade. It is a good vehicle for Victor Mc Laglen who had won his Oscar some years earlier for John Ford's The Informer. It is an early film directed by John Farrow who was to work at Paramount on many action films and move to crime thrillers in the late 1940s and '50s.

1. Entertaining melodrama? Of the '30s?

2. R.K.O. production values, B-budget? Black and white photography, atmosphere, light and shadow? The score?

3. A satisfying 1930s melodrama? Crime, police, prison? The Irish background? Catholic atmosphere?

4. Audience understanding of the sacrament of Confession, the priest and the seal of Confession? The integrity of the priest? The permission of the person confessing needed for revealing anything? The moral themes in action as regards the seal of Confession?

5. The opening, the set-up of the crime, Pat Mc Guinness. action, the coat, arrest? Type? The trial and prison? His covering his tracks? Work on the tractor? The prison sequences? Mates, obstreperous in the prison and wanting to stay in? His love for Molly? Her visits? His wanting to change and the possibility of parole? Friendship with the priest? The accident? The blood transfusion and the priest giving his blood for Mc Guinness? The irony of Mc Guinness thinking he was to die, confessing and the repercussions? His giving permission to the priest? The priest and his urging Molly? Cautioning Mc Guiness? The growing antagonism? The irony of the priest sending Mc Guinness to the O' Keefe apartment? Defiance? Mc Guinness and the hearing voices? The bashing? The hospital and his giving his blood for the priest? His confession? Smiling? A credible portrait of an ordinary man and crime? An ordinary man - with the Devil in him?

6. The priest, the parish, the role of the O' Keefes, the wedding. his duties at the prison, friendship with Molly. urging her to visit Mc Guinness, joy? The blood transfusion? The confessions? Honesty and integrity, pressure? His intervening? His being bashed? The gift of blood from Mc Guinness? His final smile?

7. O' Keefe and Barry Fitzgerald's style, a merry man, the crime. the wedding, his arrest. the court, Nora’s visit, his preparation for death? The wrong man and his being condemned to death? Audience sympathies?

8. Molly and her love for Mc Guinness, help, friendship with the priest, the engagement?

9. The familiar scenes of prisons, the men, the warders, jealousies. the graders and the accidents. escapees, parole boards and permissions? The role of the chaplain and his recommendations?

10. Themes of justice, morality. conscience? Melodrama as a vehicle for religious themes and issues?