IslandGuru Who payed the critics

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

tlooknbill I was glued to my seat finally getting to watch "I Confess" from start to finish yesterday on TCM. It's one of the most intricately and densely intertwined portrayal of human morality and tragedy I've ever seen in a movie. AND FROM HITCHCOCK?! Huh?! So he does have a soul and a comforting philosophical view on humanity.The somewhat soap opera style plot is so cerebrally involving and cleverly unfolding in a kind of spiral fashion in the form of a who done it murder investigation. You really do have to follow carefully and listen intently to the dialog because it seems to stray to explain a confession about a past relationship in a maudlin fashion but comes to slap you in the face as it unintentionally makes the wrongly accused appear even more guilty. You will realize in this movie the importance of the Miranda warning (that didn't exist in the '50's) before police interrogation. But strangely in this movie the more the innocent keep quiet the more guilty they appear.And on another philosophical layer the plot shows the results of relying on the frailty of human prejudices against extra marital affairs, religious morality and blackmail as it is steadfastly and stone faced managed by one priest who can keep his mouth shut by becoming the sacrificial lamb in order to honor his convictions of the confession from a poor immigrant who's entire personality crumbles from the guilt like a demon that calls out as it all plays out as a twist at the end that would make even Shakespeare weep. I mean you really don't know in the movie from where the release is coming till the very end. The dialog of the antagonist at the end is gut-wrenchingly sad. This movie also made me realize the power of being invested emotionally from watching a movie from start to finish because in the past I always caught the ending's climactic scene of "I Confess" as some typical '50's B-movie espionage spy flick and didn't give it much thought to watch it the next time I happened to catch at the start. This time I teared up at the very same ending scene.Unbelievable! And from a Hitchcock flick! This IS his best!

Christopher Reid I enjoyed the concept of this movie. That someone confesses to a priest (Michael Logan played by Montgomery Clift) about a murder and then the priest feels compelled to honour his vows and say nothing to the police. It creates a lot of tension. You can see it begin to weigh down on the priest. Surely he is becoming conflicted about what the right thing to do is.Logan ends up becoming a main suspect through some unfortunate details. A couple of girls saw a priest out at night. He happened to have a meeting with the victim and didn't want to reveal what its purpose was. His reluctance to answer questions makes him more suspicious in the eyes of the police. We learn about an interesting back-story involving a love triangle which Anne Baxter tells to the police in order to save Logan. She is upset to find that her words are being twisted to supply a motivation for Logan committing the murder. She reveals personal things and it all backfires.This was a movie where everyone's motivations made sense to me. I understood their choices. Nobody is flat-out stupid. Perhaps they are stubborn or short-sighted but that's an accurate insight into human nature. The villain becomes less sympathetic over time and yet Logan is so righteously unwilling to compromise his beliefs. It does remind me a bit of how Darth Vader gets a cute redemption in Return of the Jedi but none of the other henchmen or innocent victims get any such attention. Perhaps Logan realises he made a mistake by the end, it's up for debate.In any case, I greatly enjoyed the acting and the story of I Confess. I liked most of the characters and empathised with their situation. The ending is suspenseful and satisfying. It raises some moral questions like what rights should police have to pry into personal lives in order to solve a case and whether priests should divulge confessions in certain situations. There is one shot with Jesus on the cross looming above Logan as he again refuses to give any useful information. It's not distractingly obvious but it's a powerful image. I am consistently impressed and affected by Hitchcock's films in new and original ways and I Confess is no exception.

Prismark10 A man who is a German Refugee in Canada confesses to murder to a priest. The man also works as a handyman for that church so he and his wife are well known to the priest. The rules of the priesthood mean that the priest cannot divulge the confession to the police even though the priest becomes a suspect and stands trial.Montgomery Clift is in a dilemma which has meant this film has been regarded as a classic. However looked closely there are many problems with the film as the screenplay has to overreach to make the priest a suspect, the murderer is a man who the audience has little sympathy for and you do not buy that the priest would himself go to jail to save the snivelling rat.Hitchcock does his best with the thriller genre but the story line hampers him, especially with the flashback scenes with Clift and Anne Baxter whose past relationship returns to haunt them both.Karl Malden is effective as a dogged detective but as a good catholic himself you would have thought that he might have sensed there were other reasons why the priest was not forthcoming.

Leofwine_draca I CONFESS, a relatively low budget and low profile black and white thriller made by Alfred Hitchcock in the 1950s, is another variant on a well-worn theme: that of the wronged man, pursued by the law for a crime he didn't commit. I found that this film lacks the dazzle and sense of style from Hitch's better known movies, while at the same time lacking the compelling drama of Hitch's later THE WRONG MAN, but it is a workable film nonetheless.The plot is a good 'un: a man confesses to murder to a priest, but the rules of priesthood mean that the priest is unable to reveal details of the confession to the police. The priest subsequently becomes a suspect himself due to his involvement with the crime, and all the while he can say nothing to anybody even though he knows who the killer is.I CONFESS is a perfectly serviceable film for both its genre and era. Hitch elicits typically strong performances from his cast, particularly the young and handsome Montgomery Clift as the put-upon priest and a youthful Karl Malden as the dogged detective on his tail.Some of the situations do feel a little stretched - I mean, surely the priest would give up his career in the priesthood and tell the cops everything before he got to trial? Better that than face a possible death sentence for the crime! Either that, or go to his superiors earlier on and ask for their advice. Nonetheless, the competence and experience of the director mean that this is entirely watchable, with plenty of suspense and a rousing finish to close it off.