I Confess (1953)

I Confess is a 1952 drama film, released in 1953, 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).

In the book-length interview Hitchcock/Truffaut (1967), Hitchcock said he had hired Anita Björk as the female lead for I Confess, after seeing her in Miss Julie (1951). However, when she 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 play by Paul Anthelme called Nos deux consciences (Our Two Consciences), which Hitchcock saw in the 1930s. The screenplay was written by George Tabori.

Filming was done largely on location in Quebec City with numerous shots of the city landscape and interiors of its churches and other emblematic buildings, such as the Château Frontenac.

Synopsis

Father Michael Logan (Clift) is a devout Catholic priest in Ste. Marie's Church in Quebec City. He employs German immigrants Otto Keller (O. E. Hasse) and his wife Alma (Dolly Haas) as caretaker and housekeeper. Otto also works part-time as a gardener for a shady lawyer called Villette.

Actors