I Confess

I Confess is a minor Alfred Hitchcock film that I've never seen, and part of my great Hitchcock binge of 2011, wherein your intrepid author purchased some 50 Hitch films on DVD (many of which he has never seen but for some reason could not talk his way out of owning).

The gist of I Confess is a man confesses a murder to a priest, and because of the secrecy of confessional, the priest cannot reveal the murderer to police. Ah, but the murderer was disguised as a clergyman, which casts doubt on the silent priest. Here's the trailer.

This is the first time I've watched Montgomery Clift on film. The guy had some chops. He died of heart failure in his mid-40s, unfortunately. Health problems plagued him throughout his life. Seeing him here is cool — an actor I've heard about for years finally gets a face to the name.

Karl Malden appears in the film as a police detective (shocking). I've never thought of Malden as a heavy hitter in Hollywood (even though he sort of was as a character actor). Malden was never a suave leading man, but that nose, and those distinctive looks made for some great character acting in his long career.

Anne Baxter is here, too — another actor I've heard about from time to time but never really watched. Stuff like this makes me want to watch more old movies, because great swaths of Hollywood remain blind spots to me, including the bulk of Hitchcock's career. I've seen the great Hitch films, but feel obligated to dig deeper.

As long as I call myself an aspiring screenwriter (read: as long as there are older screenwriters and/or younger ones who suck, yet somehow get regular work), then I feel compelled to know Hitch well. As I'm writing this while the movie plays, I guess it's time to focus.