I Confess

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Overview

Based on the turn-of-the-century play Our Two Consciences by Paul Anthelme, this Alfred Hitchcock film is set in Quebec. Montgomery Clift plays a priest who hears the murder confession of church sexton O.E. Hasse. Bound by the laws of the Confessional, Clift is unable to turn Hasse over to the police.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/16/2016
UPC:	0888574367893
Original Release:	0000
Source:	WARNER BROS.DIGITAL DIST
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Sales rank:	5,726

Special Features

Making-Of Documentary Hitchcock's Confession: A Look At I Confess; Premiere Newsreel; Theatrical Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Montgomery Clift	Pater Logan
Anne Baxter	Ruth Grandfort
Karl Malden	Larrue
Brian Aherne	Robertson
O.E. Hasse	Otto Keller,Actor
Dolly Haas	Alma Keller
Roger Dann	Pierre Grandfort
Charles Andre	Father Millais
Nan Boardman	Maid
Henry Corden	Farouche
Alfred Hitchcock	Actor
Judson Pratt	Murphy, a policeman
Ovila L?gar?	Vilette, the lawyer
Gilles Pelletier	Father Benoit
Carmen Gingras	First French Girl
Albert Godderis	Night Watchman
Dimitri Tiomkin	Composer

Technical Credits

George Tabori

William Archibald

Alfred Hitchcock	Producer
Sidney Bernstein	Producer
George Tabori	Screenwriter
William Archibald	Screenwriter
Oliver Garretson	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A middling effort from Hitchcock, apparently attempting to adapt to the faux-documentary style then fashionable for crime stories, it features an interesting, turn by Clift. The film literalizes the symbolism of Catholic clergy as the representatives of Christ, with Clift's priest taking on the guilt for a murder due to the sanctity of the confessional. It's difficult to understand why the director chose to shoot such a musty contrivance of a play with the trappings of naturalism. Although, in The Wrong Man (1957), he was somewhat more effective with this style, his lack of interest in the normal range of human behavior hampered these films. Clift, who often chose to play characters seeking martyrdom, is well cast here, and provides what interest the film has in an underwritten part. It might have been better if the director had considered emphasizing the visual record of Clift's response to his public torment a la La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928).