Movie: "I Confess!" (1953); Alfred Hitchcock (dir.), Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter

[Bob Pr.]

"I Confess!" (1953) B&W, 95 min. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Montgomery Clift with Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, O.E. Hasse. Shown as 1 of 3 Montgomery Clift films in the KU retirees' classic movie series. Filmed in Quebec City, Canada.

I Confess (1953) (this IMDb link has a trailer; IMDb voters gave it 7.2 of 10 stars)
I Confess Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes (85% reviews were positive)

Unlike many Hitchcock films, this is not a thriller but there is suspense. Logan (Clift) and Ruth (Anne Baxter) grew up in the same Quebec City neighborhood and were longtime boyfriend & girlfriend before WW-II. During that war as a Canadian soldier, Logan decides to become a Catholic priest. Ruth expects to marry him on his return and is hurt, disappointed, at his decision but she goes on to marry another man (who'll become a very prominent lawyer and politician).

After seminary, (the now) Fr. Logan lives in the rectory next to its church with several fellow priests. An immigrant refugee couple also lives & works at this rectory, Otto (O.E. Hasse) provides part-time rectory upkeep while his wife, Alma, works strenuously (fulltime) providing meals, house-keeping, etc., for the 3 resident clerics.

Some years later, a local Quebec lawyer (Villette) who'd seen Logan & Ruth's last farewell meeting (just before Logan enters seminary), decides to blackmail Ruth trying to use his distorted sexualized account of their meeting as a means of pressuring her to influence her husband to the blackmailer's advantage. Ruth then contacts Fr. Logan and tells him about this.

Otto (of rectory maintenance) is also a part-time gardener for Villette. In an attempt to steal a cache of his money, Otto is surprised by Villette's unexpected entering and kills him to avoid prosecution. He returns to the rectory and goes into the church.

Fr. Logan seeing a person enter, goes to offer support. He finds a very distressed Otto who says he wants to confess; in doing that, Fr. Logan hears Otto's confession of the murder. Fr. Logan is now bound by the rules of the confessional to say nothing about this (he'd be excommunicated if he did).

Through a series of clues, Inspector Larrue (Karl Malden) increasingly believes Fr. Logan is guilty of Villette's murder, helped by Fr. Logan's unwillingness to speak at all of his relationship with Ruth or of Otto's confession.

Fr. Logan is put on trial.

Will he speak the truth and save himself -- or remain silent, faithful to his vows and beliefs but risking death if found guilty?

Performances were very good: Clift didn't have just a pretty face but a very expressive one as well. Malden, Baxter, and Hasse were very good. The photography often had dramatic shadows (reminiscent of those in "The Third Man") and angled framing in some scenes which added to the tension.

Hitchcock himself was Catholic and this film is very possibly his tribute to the clergy he was very familiar with.

I'll give it 4 of 5 stars.

================================================== =====

(This film is very much in the mainstream of examining moral dilemmas such as those posed by Maxwell Anderson, a "moral playwright," who also wrote (1939) "Key Largo" (the Broadway play, NOT the later 1948 movie of the same name starring Bogart & Bacall; in that fim, the narrative was completely rewritten and the play's major moral dilemma was removed.)

In the play, the central character (McCloud) goes with a college pal to fight on the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War against the Fascists. Given a command to hold a pass (risking almost certain death) to save large numbers of retreating Loyalist troops from the Fascists, McCloud deserts while his dear friend stays, successfuly holding the pass sufficiently long enough, but is killed in the process.

The play deals with McCloud's following struggles and dilemmas -- IF you don't stand up for what you truly believe, do you kill your soul? AND if you DO stand up for what you believe, even if you risk death by doing so, what survives?

Hitchcock's "I Confess!" is very much in the mainstream of examining a very similar dilemma.

[Mary Jane]

How did I not know of this movie? I really enjoy Hitchcock! I will have to keep an eye out for it.