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Everybody Confesses: I
Confess (1953)
Review Copyright Roger Zotti,
2000
On one hand Alfred Hitchcock's underrated I Confess,
set in Quebec, is about a priest, Father Michael Logan, who hears a murderer's
confession. Forbidden by Catholic law to reveal to anyone what he has heard,
Logan soon becomes the prime suspect in the murder investigation.
The crime was actually committed by the church's caretaker, Otto Keller.
On the other hand, like The Paradine Case, Rear Window, and Vertigo,
I Confess is about an individual's obsession.
The obsessed individual is Ruth Grandfort, and she has been obsessed
with Father Logan long before he entered the priesthood.
Structually, the movie consists of a series of confessions. First, there's
Keller's; and at the end the film comes full cycle with Keller making
a final confession, again to Father Logan.
In between, there are other confessions, most notably Grandfort's to
Inspector Larrue. "Have you ever been young, Inspector?" she asks him.
Then she reveals that she and Logan were once lovers.
The viewer, though, should keep in mind what Donald Spoto said, in The
Art of Alfred Hitchcock, about her confession. "[It] is shown to us
from the viewpoint of her imagination and through the haze of her amorous
fixation."
In the Grandfort character the master of suspense creates an ambiguity
that leaves the viewer wondering - and maybe confused - about how much
of her story is true and how much fantasy.
I Confess stars Montgomery Clift as Father Logan, Anne Baxter
as Ruth Grandfort, and Karl Malden as Inspector Larrue.
Clift's understated performance prompted praise from co-star Malden.
The actor projected, Malden said, a man of "held back strength." Dolly
Haas, in a small role, is effective as Keller's wife.
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