Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five stars are not enough..!!, 7 Jul 2008
This movie is nothing short of brilliant. Montgomery Clift (the priest) is exceptional, by any standard, modern or classic, and Anne Baxter seems to out-class most modern actresses by a few yards. The story is unbeatable, somehow there isn't a lot to it, but even scenes that should be boring are laden with suspense. This is cinema at it's best, it's is instructional and educational, as well as suspenseful, and meaningful.
I can only give it five stars, so I will. But I would have given it six, scratch that, I would have given it seven. Anne Baxter stands out, she also did a wonderful job in 'The Ten Commandments', she has real class, and it is a joy to watch her, you just don't see that in Hollywood anymore, perhaps there is too much money involved, or we simply don't have that old world piety, old world religiosity, these days. She comes across as almost having nobility, I can't describe it any better. She is admirable, nothing short of admirable.
Give this movie a go, if you are not sure, take a chance, even if it is black and white, and crude by modern standards, it has a story and a passion you don't get in much more expensive movies, I would say modern 'epics' like Titanic has nothing on this movie.
This movie is a gem, I had it recommended by a priest in fact, and it is a tremendous look at the priesthood, and confession, what it is all about. An amazing story, timeless, because it touches as much today as it did fifty years ago, just as much.
What a movie!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I never thought of the priesthood as offering a hiding place, 17 Aug 2008
One of Hitchcock's lesser feted works, or least known to the casual audience, sees Montgomery Clift take the role of Father Michael Logan a priest who hears a confession from a murderer and then is accused of the murder himself. Having no wish to reveal what was said to him, Logan must put his faith in the justice system to come up with the right result.
It's hardly a unique concept in a Hitchcock film, but it is a stirring plot nevertheless. Clift, who isn't given much dialogue, is more than adequate in his role and is ably assissted by a warm supporting cast. Anne Baxter, as Ruth Gradnfort - a former lover of Logan from his "pre-priest" days is less of a success. She's solid enough, but lacks the depth that OE Hasse and Dolly Haas, for instance, bring to their "lesser" roles. How much of this is the fault of the script is open to question and Baxter is not helped by the long and, frankly, tedious flashback that explains her character's history with Logan.
I Confess was a long labour of love for the director, and censorship issues of the time meant that the final scrpit was markedly different from the one which Hitchcock was pushing for. (In Hitchcock's original thesis, Montgomery Clift hangs for the crime and the backstory between Logan and Grandfort is much more logically explained as involving an illegitamate child). In a twist worthy of one of the man's films, Clift was disappointed with the new script when he arrived for filming, having taken the role on the basis of the orginal one, but it was too late for him to back out.
What remains is a strong enough film, and one of Hitchock's most sombre. It's perhaps not what the casual cinema goer would expect from Hitchock but it is most definately worth a look. You can't help feeling though that it might have been even better if Hitchcock would have had the chance to make the story he really wanted to.
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