I Confess
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Starring Montgomery Clift, Ann Baxter
Location – Canada
A stirring music(Dimitry Tiomkin), a body on the floor. Suspence is growing even from the slight tremble of the curtain behind the departed murderer. A man in the priest cassock leaves the crime scene and walks on the dark street. The local priest, Father Logan, (Montgomery Clift) sees the man entering the church and goes there to check. The man is Keller, a German laborer in the church , and he is confessing to killing a Mr Villet, a lawyer who he wanted to rob to start a new life elsewhere. Villet wanted to call the police and Keller killed him. Keller realizes that he can conceal the murder and the priest will have to keep the confession secret, so nobody will know. Keller decides to pretend the murder never happened and starts playing games with the police. Meanwhile Father Logan’s reaction to the murder is beginning to seem strange. He is seen at Villet’s house with a mysterious woman in obvious agitation and Father Logan seems to know her very well, in fact he steers her away from the house.
A couple of schoolgirls step forward to say they saw a priest leaving the scene of crime. Things are shaping up as though Father Logan is the murderer, and he can’t divulge who the murderer really is. Keller meanwhile is weaving a tale that should implicate Father Logan completely, leaving the bloody cassock in his room and hinting at the strange behavior of the accused the night of the murder. Only Keller’s wife knows the truth, but she is not talking. Even the confession of the mysterious woman, his former fiancee, who was blackmailed by Villet, makes things only worse. There seems to be no recourse. At some point Father Logan seems to contemplate leaving the church, but does not go that far. There will be no happy ending, though the real murderer gets justice in the end.
I’ve liked Montgomery Clift in Father Logan’s role. He plays a person with a lot of hidden emotions, which show through his face, not through the words. I did like Ann Baxter a lot too, especially in the scene of her confession. I absolutely loved the retrospective scenes before the war – both actors are so very young and attractive in them.
I’ve seen many Hitchcock’s movies with more suspense and mystery, but this story still had enough of suspense and thrill to keep me rooted to the screen. Throw on top an excellent cast and the usual Hitchcock’s teasers throughout the film and you have a very entertaining movie in the combination!