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I Confess (Alfred Hitchcock, 1953)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden
Genre: Film Noir, Crime Drama
About: A priest who once had a love affair and now is under suspicion of murder but can't clear his name without breaking the seal of the confessional, where he learned the identity of the real killer.
Review: This is the 26th Hitchcock film that I've seen...I enjoyed I Confess, but I wouldn't rate it as one of my favorite Hitch films. I wasn't that engaged in the story, it never felt tense and it never felt like the priest was in any real danger. It still could have worked if we got some deep insight into the inner workings of a priest's life or a detailed police investigation. But both were only lightly touched upon. I would have liked to seen the identity of the murderer kept a secret until the end. That way we could have had some twist and turns.
Montgomery Clift was amazing in: Judgment at Nuremberg, The Misfits and A Place in the Sun...but here he's miscast and seemed to be off in his own world and not 'in the movie'. He lacked emotions and I didn't buy that he was a priest being investigated for murder, while burdened with the knowledge that he knows who the murderer is, but can't tell the police as it would violate the Catholic confessional.
I thought the actor who played the murder was really good in his role and overall it is a film that held my attention.
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden
Genre: Film Noir, Crime Drama
About: A priest who once had a love affair and now is under suspicion of murder but can't clear his name without breaking the seal of the confessional, where he learned the identity of the real killer.
Review: This is the 26th Hitchcock film that I've seen...I enjoyed I Confess, but I wouldn't rate it as one of my favorite Hitch films. I wasn't that engaged in the story, it never felt tense and it never felt like the priest was in any real danger. It still could have worked if we got some deep insight into the inner workings of a priest's life or a detailed police investigation. But both were only lightly touched upon. I would have liked to seen the identity of the murderer kept a secret until the end. That way we could have had some twist and turns.
Montgomery Clift was amazing in: Judgment at Nuremberg, The Misfits and A Place in the Sun...but here he's miscast and seemed to be off in his own world and not 'in the movie'. He lacked emotions and I didn't buy that he was a priest being investigated for murder, while burdened with the knowledge that he knows who the murderer is, but can't tell the police as it would violate the Catholic confessional.
I thought the actor who played the murder was really good in his role and overall it is a film that held my attention.