I Confess

One of Hitchcock’s most undervalued films, I Confess was an early rallying point for the critics at Cahiers du Cinéma, who located a recurring theme in the transference of guilt in his thrillers of the 1930s, and which found full fruition in this Roman Catholic tale. When Father Logan (Montgomery Clift) hears the confession from his caretaker Otto (O.E. Hasse) of an accidental killing, he keeps mum in accordance with the bonds of his faith. But when Inspector Larrue (Karl Malden) hears that a man wearing a priest’s cassock was seen walking away from the scene of the crime, Logan finds himself under suspicion, and teams up with a well-meaning old flame (Anne Baxter), who might only further incriminate him. Shot largely on location in Quebec City, the film that was called “a modern masterpiece” by Eric Rohmer is as gripping and playful as any of Hitchcock’s best-known works.