TRUE CONFESSIONS (1981) C 108m dir: Ulu Grosbard

w/Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Charles Durning, Ed Flanders, Burgess Meredith, Rose Gregorio, Cyril Cusack, Kenneth McMillan, Dan Hedaya, Gwen Van Dam

From The Movie Guide: "Underrated at the time of release, TRUE CONFESSIONS is a fascinating film that exposes the dark underside of the Catholic Church and fixes it firmly in the seedy, corrupt world of film noir. The first on-screen teaming of De Niro and Duvall (they appeared in GODFATHER II but never in the same scene), the film is largely set in Los Angeles in the 1940s. Tom Spellacy (Duvall) is a hard-boiled homicide detective whose investigation of the grisly murder of a porno starlet leads him to believe his brother Des (De Niro), an ambitious Catholic monsignor, is involved with corrupt local businessman Jack Amsterdam (Durning) --- Spellacy's chief suspect. Adapted by the husband-and-wife team of [John Gregory] Dunne and [Joan] Didion from Dunne's fine novel, all of the characters in TRUE CONFESSIONS are corrupt to the core. The period detail is letter-perfect, the cast is uniformly excellent, and [Georges] Delerue's score is haunting and evocative. TRUE CONFESSIONS is a thoughtful but deeply disturbing film, and its frank portrayal of corruption and murder makes it for adults only."