I watched this film to see Helen Walker, who was so good in "Nightmare Alley." "My True Story" is a B movie directed by Mickey Rooney and besides Walker, features Aldo Ray in his first film, Elisabeth Risdon, and some familiar TV faces - Willard Parker and Emory Parnell.
Walker plays a woman who participated in a jewel robbery, was arrested, and now is given parole. A friend of her mother's has offered her a job in his candy store in a small town, so off she goes. When she gets there, it's an elaborate setup to get her to help some crooks steal the "oil of myrrh" supply from an elderly woman, Mme. Rousseau (Risdon). She becomes a companion to Mme. Rousseau, but her real job is to search for this oil, which Rousseau sells in small amounts to a perfumer. It's worth a fortune.
It's not much of a script on not much of a budget, but Walker is very good, very sweet and humble when she thinks she's going to work for the candy store, and then tough as nails when she finds out what the job is going to be.
Signed by Hollywood after an impressive Broadway performance, Walker was doing well until New Year's Eve of 1946 when she gave a ride to some war vets and was in a terrible accident which killed one soldier and badly injured the other two and Walker. The survivors claimed she was drunk, and she went to trial. This led to her being replaced in the film Heaven Only Knows. She was acquitted, but her career suffered permanent damage. She died at the age of 47 in 1968.
A sad end to a bright talent. Walker is always worth seeing, and she makes "My True Story" better than it probably was.
Walker plays a woman who participated in a jewel robbery, was arrested, and now is given parole. A friend of her mother's has offered her a job in his candy store in a small town, so off she goes. When she gets there, it's an elaborate setup to get her to help some crooks steal the "oil of myrrh" supply from an elderly woman, Mme. Rousseau (Risdon). She becomes a companion to Mme. Rousseau, but her real job is to search for this oil, which Rousseau sells in small amounts to a perfumer. It's worth a fortune.
It's not much of a script on not much of a budget, but Walker is very good, very sweet and humble when she thinks she's going to work for the candy store, and then tough as nails when she finds out what the job is going to be.
Signed by Hollywood after an impressive Broadway performance, Walker was doing well until New Year's Eve of 1946 when she gave a ride to some war vets and was in a terrible accident which killed one soldier and badly injured the other two and Walker. The survivors claimed she was drunk, and she went to trial. This led to her being replaced in the film Heaven Only Knows. She was acquitted, but her career suffered permanent damage. She died at the age of 47 in 1968.
A sad end to a bright talent. Walker is always worth seeing, and she makes "My True Story" better than it probably was.