I Confess (1953)
Grade: 79
"I Confess" is not one of Alfred Hitchcock's most popular films. The mood is grim, there's not a lot of action, there is a melodramatic love story, and the leading actor is the sullen Montgomery Clift. In short, the film is not tailored to appeal to a male audience.
Preceded by "Strangers on a Train" and followed by "Rear Window", which are among Hitchcock's best films, "I Confess" is not up to their level of quality. But it is still very good, and underrated.
The plot has Clift playing a priest. He hears a confession from Keller (O.E. Hasse) that he has just killed a man. Since a confession is between God and man alone, Clift cannot turn Keller in for the murder. Inspector Karl Malden suspects Clift of the murder, especially after he is seen in mysterious conversations with Anne Baxter, who had a romance with Clift prior to her marriage and his ordainment.
Baxter's acting is the weakest of the film. Everything she says is so breathless and melodramatic, one wonders whether she could tell you what time it is, without it appearing to be a major moment in her life.
However, Clift gives a fine performance. He doesn't have much emotional range (imagine him in a comedy!) but he is perfectly cast as a falsely accused priest who must bear his burdens in silence.
The supporting actors are also good, and have well-developed characters given their small screen-time. Clift's fellow priests have their idiosyncracies (one likes to tease people, the other has a fascination with his bicycle) and the Crown Prosecutor is a good-natured politician, much as you would expect him to be.
There is a great scene near the end of the film. Clift is surrounded by a hostile crowd, becoming a mob, that despises him and believes him guilty of the murder. It is an extremely effective scene that demonstrates how wrong public opinion can sometimes be.
There are some spoilers that follow.
In the ending, Clift is exonerated when Keller freaks out and shoots his wife, who is about to tell all to the police. It doesn't make sense for him to murder his beloved wife, in front of a hundred witnesses, in order to prevent her. Perhaps the ending should have left Clift confronting the angry mob, as it would have conveyed the message of the movie even more strongly. Not a happy ending, but then it isn't a happy film.
http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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