I CONFESS

This 1953 Alfred Hitchcock suspense thriller is one of my favorites.  It's a story of Faith, Friendships and Forgiveness.  A catholic priest hears a man's confession of murder and has to live with the consequences of  "what's said in the confession booth, stays in the confession booth."


I Confess is a noir style of movie set in the renaissance city of Quebec.  Hitchcock's use of architecture, catholicism and even the acadian accents all make this a great soup to slurp on.  The german murderer is also heavily accented which gives this villain a darker and more sinister taste.  The fact the movie came out only eight years after Hitler's villainous Germany was conquered adds to the creepiness of the german murderer, Otto Keller.


There are many fine scenes of suspense but the one scene that always picks up the pace for me is when the paranoid murderer is walking down the shadowed corridor trying to keep up with the priest, eyes bulging, nervous, talking non-stop, badgering the priest about what would happen if he told on him.  


There's another reason , besides his vow as a catholic priest, for not telling the investigating police everything. This reason weighs even heavier on the priest's shoulders than the murderer's confession. You begin to wonder if the "I" in I Confess is the priest confessing to something and not the murderer, but you'll have to slurp on the movie to get that thrill.


Yeah, "I CONFESS" is definitely a classic that gets better with every viewing.


Dimitri Tiomkin - Musical Director, Composer