I Confess (1953)

So much average

hyped garbage

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Suspenseful and tense, but from the angle of devotion and duty rather than the usual Hitchcock style. Very well made and Clift pulls off the pained look masterfully. I doubt many people today could relate to the plot, but it worked for its time.

I hadn't seen this film for some years when I caught it on TV. My opinion(s) have changed since the first viewing and since I've seen or re-seen all of Hitch's films, a certain new perspectives came into play. Guilt and oppressive authority pop up so often in the director's films, some times directly but quite often by insinuation. In this film, these two topics take a major role. It has been written that Montgomery Clift was drinking while the filming took place although I couldn't see anything in the final draft. I know also that he was "method" while Hitch was definitely not, so that might have been a source of conflict. Again, nothing was apparent on screen. Actually, the role of a priest in this work would not have been happy hunting ground for any method actor. Clift was settled on after a number of extremely good actors turned the role down. I've always enjoyed the visual aspect of Hitchcock's cinema and his daring "behind" the camera but in this film there was no room for unusual angles, editing brilliance or anything like that. It turned out to be a film of ideas and conflicts within agreements and there is nothing "cinematic" about that. I am happy to have seen this film once again as I would be with just about any film directed by Hitchcock, particularly during the fifties and sixties, but this once takes back seat to almost all of the others around it.

A man who is a German Refugee in Canada confesses to murder to a priest. The man also works as a handyman for that church so he and his wife are well known to the priest. The rules of the priesthood mean that the priest cannot divulge the confession to the police even though the priest becomes a suspect and stands trial.Montgomery Clift is in a dilemma which has meant this film has been regarded as a classic. However looked closely there are many problems with the film as the screenplay has to overreach to make the priest a suspect, the murderer is a man who the audience has little sympathy for and you do not buy that the priest would himself go to jail to save the snivelling rat.Hitchcock does his best with the thriller genre but the story line hampers him, especially with the flashback scenes with Clift and Anne Baxter whose past relationship returns to haunt them both.Karl Malden is effective as a dogged detective but as a good catholic himself you would have thought that he might have sensed there were other reasons why the priest was not forthcoming.

I CONFESS, a relatively low budget and low profile black and white thriller made by Alfred Hitchcock in the 1950s, is another variant on a well-worn theme: that of the wronged man, pursued by the law for a crime he didn't commit. I found that this film lacks the dazzle and sense of style from Hitch's better known movies, while at the same time lacking the compelling drama of Hitch's later THE WRONG MAN, but it is a workable film nonetheless.The plot is a good 'un: a man confesses to murder to a priest, but the rules of priesthood mean that the priest is unable to reveal details of the confession to the police. The priest subsequently becomes a suspect himself due to his involvement with the crime, and all the while he can say nothing to anybody even though he knows who the killer is.I CONFESS is a perfectly serviceable film for both its genre and era. Hitch elicits typically strong performances from his cast, particularly the young and handsome Montgomery Clift as the put-upon priest and a youthful Karl Malden as the dogged detective on his tail.Some of the situations do feel a little stretched - I mean, surely the priest would give up his career in the priesthood and tell the cops everything before he got to trial? Better that than face a possible death sentence for the crime! Either that, or go to his superiors earlier on and ask for their advice. Nonetheless, the competence and experience of the director mean that this is entirely watchable, with plenty of suspense and a rousing finish to close it off.