"I confess" is not the best Hitchcock movie, but with a 23rd place according to IMDB rating (07-02-2024) I feel it is nevertheless underrated.
Besides, it is one of the movies that illustrates the way in which the master of suspence liked to tell a story very clearly.
Hitchcock liked to inform the viewer in a very early stage of (some of) his films about the real perpetrator. He thereby converts a "whodonnit" in a "willtheycatchhim".
In "I confess" he stretches this technique to the limit. Not only does he tell in the first 25% of the film who is the murderer, but also:
In which way the murderer tries to make someone else a suspect.
Why this suspect cannot and will not make use of his alibi's.
The only question left open is if a third person is willing to provide the suspect with an alibi? The answer to this question is given in the other 75% of the movie, which remains surprisingly tense, a spicy additive being that the suspect knows who the real murderer is.
Montgomery Clift has a great performance as the suspect and the much less well known O. E. Hasse is on the same level as the real murderer. Compared to these great performances Anne Baxter is a little bit disappointing as the love interest of the suspect. Regular Hitchcock cinematographer Robert Burks has shoot this film in noir style.
Besides, it is one of the movies that illustrates the way in which the master of suspence liked to tell a story very clearly.
Hitchcock liked to inform the viewer in a very early stage of (some of) his films about the real perpetrator. He thereby converts a "whodonnit" in a "willtheycatchhim".
In "I confess" he stretches this technique to the limit. Not only does he tell in the first 25% of the film who is the murderer, but also:
In which way the murderer tries to make someone else a suspect.
Why this suspect cannot and will not make use of his alibi's.
The only question left open is if a third person is willing to provide the suspect with an alibi? The answer to this question is given in the other 75% of the movie, which remains surprisingly tense, a spicy additive being that the suspect knows who the real murderer is.
Montgomery Clift has a great performance as the suspect and the much less well known O. E. Hasse is on the same level as the real murderer. Compared to these great performances Anne Baxter is a little bit disappointing as the love interest of the suspect. Regular Hitchcock cinematographer Robert Burks has shoot this film in noir style.