I Confess [1953] [DVD]

As a somewhat tortured Roman Catholic, Alfred Hitchcock jumped at the chance to direct this loose adaptation of Paul Anthelme's 1902 play Nos Deux Consciences, which brings together his twin obsessions of spiritual guilt and murder. The ingenious premise concerns a priest, Father Michael Logan (Montgomery Clift), who hears a killer's confession, but can't break his vow of silence and report the crime, even when suspicion falls upon himself. The film was partly shot in Quebec City (where the story is set), and the camera lingers lovingly over the sumptuous architecture. Yet it may be that Hitchcock was happier working within the confines of a studio, for he takes a low-key approach that never quite delivers on the anticipated thrills. In his defence, the production appears to have been extremely troubled. The script (credited to George Tabori and William Archibald) went through numerous rewrites, largely because the Catholic Church objected to a sub-plot involving Father Logan's ambiguous relationship with Ruth Grandfort (Ann Baxter), a woman who loved him in his pre-cassock days. This romantic angle was doubtless a concession to the box office, but it merely bogs down the suspense while remaining undeveloped in itself. And according to the gossip, Hitchcock couldn't make head or tail of his star, Clift's improvised Method acting being utterly foreign to a control freak who planned each camera movement in advance with elaborate storyboards (it didn't help that the angst-ridden Monty drank heavily during the entire shoot). For whatever reason, the priest's dilemma comes across as a clever gimmick rather than a genuine moral crisis. Perhaps on some hidden level, the director felt more in sympathy with the murderer (whose wife is named Alma, the same as Hitchcock's own wife). The movie is a failed experiment that belongs in the "interesting" category. Still, it's worth checking out, especially if you've seen the 1995 French Canadian film The Confessional, which incorporates the location shooting of I Confess into its plot. --Peter Matthews

Classic Hitchcock movie starring Montgomery Clift & Anne Baxter. Otto Kellar and his wife Alma work as caretaker and housekeeper at a Catholic church in Quebec. Whilst robbing a house where he sometimes works as a gardener, Otto is caught and kills the owner. Racked with guilt he heads back to the church where Father Michael Logan is working late. Otto confesses his crime, but when the police begin to suspect Father Logan he cannot reveal what he has been told in the confession