One of Alfred Hitchcock's lesser known and least celebrated works,I CONFESS still has a great deal of merit,owing more to Hitchcock's peerless craftsmanship than for it's somewhat obvious plot and script.
Father Michael Logan (Montgomery Clift) hears a confession from a church worker he knows,Keller (OE Hasse) that he has just killed a man.The man in question was apparently blackmailing Logan over an affair he was having with a married woman (Anne Baxter) before he entered the clergy.After confessing the affair to the police and admitting she is still in love with him,the police now point to Logan as their main suspect,but the priest refuses to divulge details of Keller's confession as befits the rules of the Catholic Church,knowing all the time it would clear him on suspicion of murder.
I CONFESS' main saving grace is it's unusual location (Quebec,Canada), and the stylish,noirish lighting used by Hitchcock and his regular photographer Robert Burks.Hitchcock was not always the greatest advocate of location filming,and although there's some obvious symbolism of the Catholic Church employed (Hitchcock himself was raised in the faith), the cobbled streets and old-world style charm of the city is atmospherically used and gives the film an extra added sheen and quality that is much needed related to it's other elements.The plot itself is a hoary old chestnut with expected complications and developments,with a predictable love story included.Told in flashback with slow motion and a heavenly choir for good measure,one isn't sure whether or not Hitchcock meant the sequence to be serious or a downright parody,falling in between two stools.The tone is very earnest and the pacing is rather over-methodical,with very little humour and an often stilted,lumbering script.Clift is rather stolidly over-earnest as the accused clergyman,and the unremarkable machinations of the story don't lead to much excitement or suspense.Miss Baxter and Hasse are merely adequate in their roles whereas Roger Dann and Dolly Haas are somewhat better as the respective spouses,and the best performance comes from the ever-reliable Karl Malden as the by-the-book Inspector Larrue,though as with virtually every other character,his part is somewhat under-developed.
Hitchcock himself apparently had little time for I CONFESS, calling it 'heavy handed and lacking in humour'.That is mostly true,though there was only so much he could add to such an over-familiar storyline as this.But what he did manage still turns I CONFESS into a watchable if disappointing and minor work in his filmography,though with interesting enough touches and directorial style obtaining mileage out of a story and script that with most other directors would've been generic and very routine.
RATING:6 and a half out of 10.
Father Michael Logan (Montgomery Clift) hears a confession from a church worker he knows,Keller (OE Hasse) that he has just killed a man.The man in question was apparently blackmailing Logan over an affair he was having with a married woman (Anne Baxter) before he entered the clergy.After confessing the affair to the police and admitting she is still in love with him,the police now point to Logan as their main suspect,but the priest refuses to divulge details of Keller's confession as befits the rules of the Catholic Church,knowing all the time it would clear him on suspicion of murder.
I CONFESS' main saving grace is it's unusual location (Quebec,Canada), and the stylish,noirish lighting used by Hitchcock and his regular photographer Robert Burks.Hitchcock was not always the greatest advocate of location filming,and although there's some obvious symbolism of the Catholic Church employed (Hitchcock himself was raised in the faith), the cobbled streets and old-world style charm of the city is atmospherically used and gives the film an extra added sheen and quality that is much needed related to it's other elements.The plot itself is a hoary old chestnut with expected complications and developments,with a predictable love story included.Told in flashback with slow motion and a heavenly choir for good measure,one isn't sure whether or not Hitchcock meant the sequence to be serious or a downright parody,falling in between two stools.The tone is very earnest and the pacing is rather over-methodical,with very little humour and an often stilted,lumbering script.Clift is rather stolidly over-earnest as the accused clergyman,and the unremarkable machinations of the story don't lead to much excitement or suspense.Miss Baxter and Hasse are merely adequate in their roles whereas Roger Dann and Dolly Haas are somewhat better as the respective spouses,and the best performance comes from the ever-reliable Karl Malden as the by-the-book Inspector Larrue,though as with virtually every other character,his part is somewhat under-developed.
Hitchcock himself apparently had little time for I CONFESS, calling it 'heavy handed and lacking in humour'.That is mostly true,though there was only so much he could add to such an over-familiar storyline as this.But what he did manage still turns I CONFESS into a watchable if disappointing and minor work in his filmography,though with interesting enough touches and directorial style obtaining mileage out of a story and script that with most other directors would've been generic and very routine.
RATING:6 and a half out of 10.