I Confess is one of Alfred Hitchcock's most serious films. It is also one of his most personal films. Raised a strict Jesuit, Hitchcock was a devout Catholic all his life.
It tells the story of a priest who hears the confession of a murderer. Than by coincidence he finds himself implicated and then charged with the murder. His vows keep him from revealing the the truth about what happened. To the police his silence indicates his guilt.
Montgomery Clift plays the priest. He uses the method style of acting coming into vogue in 1953, but it makes his character appear wooden and emotionless. Anne Baxter plays a woman he knew before he was a priest, before WWII intervened and put his life on a new path. Karl Malden is the police detective, determined to bring the killer to justice and reveal all the secrets of his hidden past.
I Confess received a mixed response when it was released. Hitchcock struggled in giving direction to Clift, who thought he knew better and refused to take direction from Hitchcock. Anne Baxter over acts as usual. She was not Hitchcock's first choice for the role. He planned on using Anita Bjork, a Swedish actress, for the part. But when she arrived in Hollywood with her lover and their child the studio said no. They did not want another Ingrid Bergman style uproar on their hands.
The film is filled with classic Hitchcock touches. An incredibly long reverse tracking shot, the opening use of tighter and tighter shots to take the audience to the scene of the crime. He chose to shoot in Quebec because of it's old world French Catholicism and all the beautiful churches. The black & white cinematography is superb. It could easily be listed as one of the most beautiful b&W films ever made. Hitchcock also makes great use of Catholic symbolism in the film, to depict that anguish that Clift is incapable of showing in his performance. The movie balances relationships and multiple confessions and is much more complex than appears on the surface.
Audiences also did not respond to I Confess. As part of the plot we learn that the priest had a relationship and strong feelings for a woman before the war. This is before he was ordained or even considered being a priest. Because of this relationship he is implicated in the murder. Audiences did not respond to the movie due to the scandalous nature of the plot. The film was even banned in Ireland because the priest admits once having feelings for the woman. The French seemed to understand the film better. It was hailed by the French New Wave critics and film-makers as part of an American new wave of film making and played in French theatres for over a year.
Hitchcock made I Confess in between two of his masterpieces Strangers On A Train (1951) and Dial M For Murder (1953) and because of this I Confess is often dismissed as a lesser work. It is not. Comparing Hitchcock films is like comparing valuable stones. A diamond may be nicer than a ruby, but they are both gems.
Mostly because of Clift and Baxter, Hitchcock did not enjoy making this film and he never worked with this trio of actors again.
At The Movie House rating *** stars
Films of Interests:
The Wrong Man
No Way Out
True Confessions
Rosary Murders
The Fugitive
North By Northwest
Sabotuer
Dial M For Murder
2 comments:
Admit it, you are realizing that whole gun issue in The American was a bad script device
When you look at it from a differnt point of view making the gun makes perfect sense.
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