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True Confessions is a 1981 film directed by Ulu Grosbard.

The setting is not long after the end of World War II. Desmond Spellacy (Robert De Niro) and Tom Spellacy (Robert Duvall) are brothers in Los Angeles. Desmond is a Catholic priest, in fact an ambitious monsignor who seems destined to become a bishop. He's less of a priest than a real estate magnate, really, using church money for construction projects all over the city. That's how Monsignor Spellacy has gotten involved with Jack Amsterdam (Charles Durning), a corrupt construction mogul who wants his help getting a housing project built.

Tom Spellacy is a detective sergeant with the LAPD. Back in the day, Tom used to be on the take and helped Jack Amsterdam run a prostitution racket, which was how Amsterdam made his fortune. Tom picks up a gruesome murder case, involving a young woman named Lois Fazenda who was found lying dead, and cut completely in half, on a residential side street. Tom's investigation reveals that Lois was a would-be actress who was actually working as a prostitute and doing porn. Eventually he discovers that Lois was the kept woman of Jack Amsterdam.

Burgess Meredith plays Monsignor Fargo, who is uncomfortable with Msgr. Spellacy's business dealings and as a consequence is replaced by him. Dan Hedaya appears briefly as a reporter. James Hong plays the coroner.


Tropes:

  • Anticlimax: Tom never even makes an arrest in the Fazenda murder. His investigation reveals that the killer was Lois's boyfriend/porn producer, Leland, who was himself killed in a car accident mere hours after dumping Lois's body.
  • Book Ends: The film begins and ends with the scenes at the desert parish in the 1960s, where Desmond tells Tom that he is dying.
  • The Butler Did It: A joke. As they contemplate the grisly murder scene, Tom's partner Frank says "I think the butler did it!" Tom says "Don't you ever get tired of saying that?"
  • Confessional: Apparently the main purpose of Desmond's confessional booth is for either Tom or Jack Amsterdam to confront him.
  • Drop Dead Gorgeous: Lois Fazenda is discovered naked, dead, and cut in two. There's also a scene soon after where the detectives arrive for her autopsy and her corpse is laid out on a slab.
  • How We Got Here: The first scene is set in the early 1960s and has Tom, who apparently hasn't seen his brother in some time, driving to a remote church in the middle of the desert to visit Desmond. Then the film cuts back to the late 1940s and the story proper begins.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: Jack Amsterdam is coughing in his first scene. He's revealed to be dying of lung cancer.
  • Out with a Bang: Tom has to handle the case of a priest who died of a heart attack in the middle of sex with a hooker.
  • Poor Man's Porn: Frank cheerfully relates how he has studied brassiere ads so much that he can tell what kind of bra a woman is wearing by the outline visible under her dress/blouse.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica: When Monsignor Fargo proves too hostile to Desmond's real estate wheeling and dealing he is relieved of his duties and assigned to a remote parish somewhere in the empty California desert. The Book Ends set in the 1960s reveal that Desmond got sent there as well after the scandal of the Virgin Tramp murder wrecked his career.
  • Roman à Clef: One of many, many fictional works inspired by the infamous Black Dahlia murder, although in this particular film they change the character's name from Elizabeth Short to Lois Fazenda, and she gets a different tabloid nickname, the "Virgin Tramp".
  • Roof Hopping: A suspect escapes from Tom by running to the roof of a building and then leaping a gap between that building and the next.
  • Trade Your Passion for Glory: Desmond has gotten so wrapped up in real estate and managing church finances that he has basically forgotten about being a priest. At the end he thanks Tom for wrecking his career, as it got him back to a life of saving souls.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Brenda the madam is bitter about how she took the fall and spent time in prison for criminal activities that Tom was a part of. She flings his corrupt past at him, screaming "Once a bagman, always a bagman!", and he slaps her.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: In the How We Got Here sequence that bookends the film, Desmond reveals to Tom that he is dying of heart disease.

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