Charlie Chaplin's son Sydney Chaplin gets first-billed in a British Film Noir titled CONFESSION aka THE DEADLIEST SIN; the melodramatic alternate title references a priest who overhears the wrong confession from a confessor killed right after uttering what he's done, sort of...
And it's all the fault of Chaplin as prodigal son Mike Nelson, back home from America (with no British accent) with his crippled father and gorgeous sister Audrey Dalton...
She thinks big brother's as clean as the driven snow, providing what others have noticed is similar to Alfred Hitchcock's "cute niece loves her charmingly vicious uncle" SHADOW OF A DOUBT as well as I CONFESS with a targeted priest, leaving Chaplin little to do but look ominous and secretive, especially after sister loses trust since her boyfriend (and both their childhood friend) is the one killed after committing a retaliation-style murder of square-jawed Patrick Allen, who was blackmailing the suitcase-full-of-cash Chaplin in a thriller where the important side roles die off too quick to matter...
And, sadly, what began as a chance for Sydney Chaplin to shine darkly (looking more like he'd be Victor Mature's brother than Charlie Chaplin's son), the picture winds up in the hands of cop John Bentley, who... as the tail wags the dog... would have been better left in the background.
And it's all the fault of Chaplin as prodigal son Mike Nelson, back home from America (with no British accent) with his crippled father and gorgeous sister Audrey Dalton...
She thinks big brother's as clean as the driven snow, providing what others have noticed is similar to Alfred Hitchcock's "cute niece loves her charmingly vicious uncle" SHADOW OF A DOUBT as well as I CONFESS with a targeted priest, leaving Chaplin little to do but look ominous and secretive, especially after sister loses trust since her boyfriend (and both their childhood friend) is the one killed after committing a retaliation-style murder of square-jawed Patrick Allen, who was blackmailing the suitcase-full-of-cash Chaplin in a thriller where the important side roles die off too quick to matter...
And, sadly, what began as a chance for Sydney Chaplin to shine darkly (looking more like he'd be Victor Mature's brother than Charlie Chaplin's son), the picture winds up in the hands of cop John Bentley, who... as the tail wags the dog... would have been better left in the background.