'I CONFESS'........HITCH DOES THE FULL MONTY.......

I Confess  (1953)  There may be have  been no actor more unsuitable to work with Alfred Hitchcock than Montgomery Clift.......

              High strung, mercurial, an ultra nervous practitioner of deeply internalized Method acting, Clift couldn't ever fit in with Hitchcock's 'pure cinema' technique, in which he moved the actors around like chess pieces in a meticulous pre-planned strategy......

              Actors learned to work their way through the strict discipline of Hitchcock's pinpoint camerawork and editing. They'd manage to fit in their performances within the rigid structure of a film that Hitchcock had essentially made already.......in his head and on paper.

              So one could only imagine the oil-and-water mix that went on between ultimate craftsman Hitchcock and the Method-trained Clift, who needed to mentally feel his way through every nuance of his character..........a Canadian priest who hears an admission of murder in the confession booth.

              But here's the thing......why we regularly return to this movie......one of the forgotten, rarely examined movies in the Hitchcock canon.....

              We positively love Montgomery Clift in this.........even when the film itself goes wobbly and unbelievable in its plot structure, Clift's conflicted, morally tortured Father Logan holds us riveted.....

               Looking always like he's on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown, Clift's haunted expressions and deer-in-the-headlights eyes can literally magnetize you to the screen.

               Using an actor who lives on the tip of his nerve endings may have been a terrible choice for Hitchcock's personal style........but by the time "The End" appears in the final frames, you realize Clift's work here is what truly makes the film worth watching.

               Watching Clift as he lugs the weight of the world around on his slim shoulders, we barely notice the idiotic, soap opera-ish plot twist.......the film's murderer,for reasons of his own,  in a far-fetched variation on the guilt-transference trope of  "Strangers On A Train", conveniently bumps off the guy who's been blackmailing Clift and his long-ago, pre-priesthood girlfriend. (Anne Baxter)........threatening to expose the one-night-stand they once had after taking a rainy day refuge in the blackmailer's gazebo.

             In this movie, what happens in the gazebo, doesn't stay in the gazebo......

              Like we said, you don't examine this hard-to-swallow storyline too closely.......not while you're busy watching Clift give you the full Monty of agonized neurotic guilt.......

             And there are a few other pleasures here........Karl Malden's sturdy performance as the dogged detective out to unravel the crime.... O.E. Hasse's unsettling work as the simpering, creepy murderer, whose profound evil finally comes roaring out at the climax.......and a surprising lack of sound-stage artifice from Hitchcock, shooting many of the key scenes in actual locations.

              Film critics, cinema historians and even Hitchcock fans tend to give this one a pass......but the BQ still counts it among our treasured favorites.......4 stars (****)......the only Hitchcock we could categorize as a Clift-Hanger.....(sorry, we couldn't resist.....)