I Confess (film)

I Confess (film)
I Confess

Directed by Produced by Based on

Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock Nos deux consciences by Paul Anthelme Montgomery Clift Anne Baxter Karl Malden Brian Aherne O. E. Hasse Roger Dann Dolly Haas Dimitri Tiomkin Robert Burks Rudi Fehr Warner Bros. March22,1953 92 minutes Canada United States English $2 million (US)
[1]

Starring

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I Confess is a 1953 drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Montgomery Clift as Fr. Michael William Logan, a Catholic priest, Anne Baxter as Ruth Grandfort, and Karl Malden as Inspector Larrue. Biographers say Hitchcock had trouble with "method" actors such as Clift and Paul Newman, who worked with him in Torn Curtain (1966).

I Confess (film) In the book-length interview Hitchcock/Truffaut (1967), Hitchcock said he had hired Anita Bjrk as the female lead for I Confess, after seeing her in Miss Julie (1951). However, when Bjrk arrived in Hollywood with her lover and their baby, Warner Bros. insisted that Hitchcock find another actress. The film is based on a 1902 French-Canadian play by Paul Anthelme called Nos deux consciences (Our Two Consciences), which Hitchcock saw in the 1930s. The screenplay was written by George Tabori. [2] The movie was largely filmed on location in Quebec City with numerous shots of the city landscape and interiors of its churches and other emblematic buildings, such as the Chteau Frontenac.

Plot
Father Michael Logan (Clift) is a devout Catholic priest in a church in Quebec City. To take care of the church and the rectory, Father Logan employs a caretaker, Otto Keller (O. E. Hasse), and a housekeeper, Otto's wife Alma (Dolly Haas), who are German immigrants with very little money, although in their homeland they were more affluent. Otto Keller also works part-time as a gardener for a few householders in Quebec City. Very late one evening Keller asks if Father Logan will hear his confession. In the confessional, Keller confesses that he went to try to steal money from a person he gardens for, a rich lawyer called Villette, and in the process he killed him. Because of the binding nature of the secrecy of the confessional, Father Logan cannot tell the police anything he now knows about this crime.

Montgomery Clift in the I Confess film trailer

At the time of the murder, two young girls saw someone leaving the house of the murdered man wearing a cassock. While this was just Otto's disguise, suspicion falls upon Father Logan himself (who cannot provide an alibi for the time of the murder, cannot talk about the confession he heard, and cannot name the true murderer). It gradually becomes apparent that Logan, in his early life before he became a priest, had a girlfriend, Ruth (Anne Baxter), who has always loved him and still does, even though she is now married to someone else. In flashbacks it is shown that Logan stopped writing to Ruth not long after he went off to war. After he came back, Ruth and Logan ended up stranded on an island during a storm, and were forced to shelter for the night in a gazebo. In the morning Villette finds them there, makes offensive comments about Ruth, and is punched by Logan. It turns out that Ruth had married a prominent politician without ever telling Logan, who leaves her and does not see her for years. But Ruth is being blackmailed by Villette. Both her and her husband's lives would be ruined if her previous relationship with Logan were made public, and so she had met with Logan on the night of the murder to ask him for advice about the blackmail situation.

I Confess (film)

Villette's death comes as a relief to Ruth, and she tells the police about her meeting with Father Logan in order to provide him an alibi, but the meeting did not correspond exactly to the time of the murder and in fact suggests a possible motive. The police then assume that Father Logan killed the blackmailer Villette to protect Ruth and himself, and that there is an ongoing scandalous relationship between the two of them. The situation is made worse by Otto Keller, who lies extensively to the police in order to try to ensure that he himself is safe from suspicion and thus in effect is attempting to ensure that Father Logan is convicted of the murder. Father Logan comes very close to being found guilty and executed for a crime he did not commit, a sort of Anne Baxter in the I Confess trailer martyrdom. At the end of his trial, he is just barely found "not guilty", but his reputation as a priest is ruined, and the people of Quebec City gather on the courthouse steps to revile him. Otto's wife cannot bear to see this, and starts to shout out that it was her husband who killed the man, but Otto pulls out a gun and shoots his wife in order to silence her. Running away, Otto is cornered by the police in the grand ballroom of the Chteau Frontenac. The detective who investigated the story is unable to elicit any comment from Father Logan, and so suspects that Otto is in fact Villette's murderer, and asks him so. Otto then assumes that Father Logan has broken the secret of his confession. Otto declares his guilt and tries to shoot Father Logan, who bravely attempts to approach him and reason with him. Instead, Otto himself is fatally wounded by a police sharpshooter. In extremis Otto calls out to Father Logan to forgive him, and receives absolution. Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In I Confess he can be seen right after the opening credits walking across the top of a steep stairway.

Production
I Confess had one of the longest "preproductions" of any Hitchcock film, with almost 12 writers working on the script for Hitchcock over an eight-year period. (Hitchcock had taken time off for the wedding of his daughter Patricia Hitchcock in 1951, and Hitchcock was in the midst of dissolving his partnership in Transatlantic Pictures with Sidney Bernstein.) The original screenplay, following the source play, had the priest and his lover having an illegitimate baby, and the priest being executed at the end of the film. These aspects of the script were removed at the insistence of executives at Warner Brothers because they feared a negative reaction.[3] Shooting took place in Hollywood and Quebec in under two months. Hitchcock had planned on using Quebec-area churches at no cost. When the local diocese read the original script by George Tabori, it objected to the priest's execution and rescinded its permission. When Tabori refused to change the script, Hitchcock brought in William Archibald to rewrite it.[4] Hitchcock, as was his custom, created detailed storyboards for each scene. He could not understand Clift's Method acting technique and quickly became frustrated with Clift when he blew take after take for failing to follow Hitchcock's instructions.[5] Cognizant of the difficulty non-Catholics would have in understanding the priest's reluctance to expose Keller, he said,[6] We Catholics know that a priest cannot disclose the secret of the confessional, but the Protestants, the atheists, and the agnostics all say, 'Ridiculous! No man would remain silent and sacrifice his life for such a thing.'

I Confess (film)

Reception
The film was banned in Ireland because it showed a priest having a relationship with a woman (even though, in the movie, the relationship takes place before the character becomes a priest).[7] The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.[] I Confess was a favorite among French New Wave film makers, according to filmmaker/historian Peter Bogdanovich.[8] Film critic Father Peter Malone, MSC, has described I Confess as "the most Catholic film of Hitchcock's films."[9]

Featured cast
Actor Role

Montgomery Clift Fr. Michael William Logan Anne Baxter Karl Malden Brian Aherne Roger Dann Dolly Haas Charles Andr O.E. Hasse Donat Lauzier Ruth Grandfort Inspector Larrue Willy Robertson Pierre Grandfort Alma Keller Fr. Millars Otto Keller SQ Police Officer

Adaptations
I Confess was adapted to the radio program Lux Radio Theater on September 21, 1953 with Cary Grant in Montgomery Clift's role.

References

[1] 'The Top Box Office Hits of 1953', Variety, January 13, 1954 [2] TCM: I Confess notes (http:/ / www. tcm. com/ tcmdb/ title/ 78777/ I-Confess/ notes. html) Linked 2013-06-09 [3] Patrick McGilligan, Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2002) via Google Books (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Bf5l0qtZabMC& pg=PA456& lpg=PA456& dq=david+ duncan+ the+ bramble+ bush& source=bl& ots=U8psC0NI4c& sig=3EM1D6BRMmJQou9rE3kkGA1GlmQ& hl=en& ei=fxC-TIfDDoyqsAPSpqD7DA& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=4& ved=0CCUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage& q=david duncan the bramble bush& f=false) [4] LaGuardia, Robert (1977). Monty: A Biography of Montgomery Clift. New York, Avon Books. ISBN 0-300-01887-X (paperback edition). p. 98. [5] LaGuardia, p. 99. [6] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=EPq6heCUbjsC& pg=PA97& lpg=PA97& dq=Hitchcock%20i%20confess%20\"non-catholic\"&source=bl&ots=8Y_z3_eixs&sig=Lg5xCN3AX6UXovldBKFeCK_jPjY&hl=en&ei=O79QTr_jHsXTiAKd8 [7] IrishFilm website (http:/ / www. irishfilm. ie/ cinema/ fsdispfilm_07. asp?SID=71& filmID=4465) [8] Hitchcock's Confession: A Look at "I Confess", featurette included on the I Confess DVD

I Confess DVD documentary

I Confess (film)

External links
I Confess (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045897/) at the Internet Movie Database I Confess (http://ia600208.us.archive.org/21/items/Lux18/ Lux-530921-55m02s-848hrt-IConfess-CGrantPThaxter.mp3) on Lux Radio Theater: September 21, 1953

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

I Confess (film) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=561487949 Contributors: Andrzejbanas, Antenor81, BRG, Bearcat, Bender235, Bibliomaniac15, Bovineboy2008, Caiaffa, Cassandro, Cooksey87, Cooksi, DeansFA, Dutchy85, Dutzi, Dvalerio, Edison, Emjayemsee, Epinette M, Feydey, Fred.Pendleton, Haymaker, Ineuw, Invertzoo, Irishguy, Jay-W, JediKnyghte, Jnestorius, JoeSmack, KF, Lincher, Lionelt, Lugnuts, Manuel Trujillo Berges, MarB4, Melaen, Mlouns, Noirish, OhTheHumanity, Pastor Kam, Peter Grey, Pfa, Philbertgray, Philip Cross, Pranking Member, RHodnett, Reinyday, Rjwilmsi, Rms125a@hotmail.com, Roisterer, Ronhjones, Sallyrob, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, Shawn in Montreal, Smith03, Spencerhoward, Supernumerary, TGC55, Tenar80, Th1rt3en, The JPS, Thismightbezach, Thomas Blomberg, Tjmayerinsf, Treybien, TruthIIPower, Vanjagenije, Varlaam, Venomviper, Who, Wmahan, Xezbeth, YUL89YYZ, Yworo, 40 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:I confess poster.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:I_confess_poster.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Easchiff File:Montgomery Clift in I Confess trailer.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Montgomery_Clift_in_I_Confess_trailer.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Trailer screenshot File:Anne Baxter in I Confess trailer.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Anne_Baxter_in_I_Confess_trailer.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Trailer screenshot

License
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