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I CONFESS (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock, 1953).

While I Confess is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s lesser known films, it is certainly not one of his lesser works. The plot concerns a Catholic Priest to whom is confessed a murder which his oath prevents him from telling the authorities of. Knowledge of a pre-priesthood affair with a married woman who was being blackmailed by the victim implicates the priest as the culprit.

While Montgomery Clift is not the obvious casting choice as a Catholic priest he acquits himself well here. Nobody does angst like Monty and Hitchcock, famously not a fan of the method acting to which Clift subscribed, extracts a nuanced and believable performance from the star in a seemingly difficult part. Able support comes from Anne Baxter as his former lover and Karl Malden as the dogged investigating officer.

While not as showy as much of Hitchcock’s work - nobody dangles from the Statue of Liberty or is pursued across Mount Rushmore - it is beautiful shot in black and white on the Quebec locations on which it is set. This unfamiliar setting gives the film a decidedly un-Hollywood atmosphere, maybe a contributing factor to the film’s popularity in France while it was overlooked in the US.

While it is perhaps the most uncharacteristically Hitchcockian of the director’s work, I Confess holds up as a unique, unfairly neglected gem.

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