- Alfred Hitchcock's I Confess addresses the age-old question of what's worse: Getting framed for murder or running into an ex-girlfriend? Father Logan (Montgomery Clift), the hero of the piece, is unlucky enough to have both experiences on the same evening. Worse yet, he can't reveal the truth about either one! Once the real murderer, Otto Keller (O. E. Hasse), confesses his crime to Fr. Logan, the "seal of the confessional" prevents the priest from going to the police. As a result, Logan himself becomes the prime suspect, and the deceitful Keller is all-too-eager to let him take the fall. And Logan's alibi? It's none other than his old flame, Ruth Grandfort (Anne Baxter), who sought out the improbably handsome priest because she was being blackmailed by the same man whom Keller just killed. It's enough to make even a priest question his faith.
- Although Mrs. Grandfort (yes, she's also married) hopes to stay out of the spotlight, the determined Inspector Larrue (Karl Malden) and his plainclothes men eventually track her down. In a revealing set of well-handled flashbacks, Logan and Grandfort recount the not-so-lurid details of their relationship, but they aren't quite enough to clear Logan's name. In fact, as Larrue notes, Mrs. Grandfort's testimonial deprives Logan of an alibi while providing him with a motive. Although a jury barely finds Logan not guilty, it's obvious that the public has made up its mind. Now the only person who can clear Logan's name is Otto Keller.
- From the opening shots of street signs pointing at a corpse to the angry crowd that hurls insults at Logan, I Confess marks an interesting return for Alfred Hitchcock to his expressionist roots. It's an appropriate choice of styles, too, particularly when backed with the stark beauty of Quebec's cathedrals, the Dies Irae, and the strange insidiousness of a villain like Keller, who shoots his conscience-laden wife (Dolly Haas) one minute and asks for forgiveness the next. Whether the film is meant as an indictment of that particular loophole in Catholicism is unclear, but Keller certainly exploits it to good effect. It's a rare example in Hitchcock's filmography in which the rightfully guilty character is more interesting than the wrongfully accused hero.
- I spotted Hitchcock walking across the screen as the first person in the film.
