By David in TN
Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 5:44:00 P.M. EST
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week will not be on this weekend.
On Wednesday Night-Thursday Morning at 12:30 a.m. ET, TCM shows Alfred Hitchcock’s I Confess! (1953) with Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne, O.E. Hasse and Dolly Haas.
Film Noir Guide: “After rectory employee Hasse, disguised as a Catholic priest, kills a shady attorney while robbing the man’s Quebec home, he confesses his crime to priest Clift. Bound by the seal of the confessional, Clift cannot reveal the killer to police investigator Malden, who has found witnesses who saw a priest leave the attorney’s house on the night of the murder, and begins to suspect that Clift may be the killer. When the cop discovers that the deceased attorney had been blackmailing Clift’s former girlfriend (Baxter), now married to an important politician, he charges the priest with the murder.
Meanwhile, Hasse, worried that Clift might crack under the strain and break the confessional seal, plants evidence implicating him. Aherne is the prosecutor, and Haas is Hasse’s conscience-stricken wife.
This minor Hitchcock film isn’t one of The Master’s best efforts, but Clift gives a nicely subdued performance, and Baxter is good as the woman in love with a memory.”
David in TN: Hitchcock supposedly regretted making the film because non-Catholics would not understand why the priest couldn’t reveal the killer had confessed to him, even when charged with the murder.
Still, a favorite of mine. Nice to see what Quebec looked like in 1953.
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TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 am ET is a British film, Cast a Dark Shadow (1957), with Dirk Bogarde, Mona Washbourne, Margaret Lockwood, Kay Walsh.
Film Noir Guide: "Sociopath Bogarde has developed a nice little scam: He marries wealthy widows and murders them for their money. His current wife (Washbourne), having fallen for his evil charm, intends to change her will, leaving everything to Bogarde. Believing that she's planning to disinherit him, he kills her before she can sign the paperwork, and winds up with only the house and no cash.
Broke, he next weds a saloonkeeper's street-smart widow (Lockwood), who he thinks is wealthy. The joke is on him when he discovers that she's a con artist who married HIM for HIS money.
When Bogarde meets Walsh, an eligible lady with money, it seems that the cycle will start all over. Lockwood, however, isn't a willing victim.
This British noir entry is a bit confusing, but Bogarde is terrific as the charismatic (but unlucky) schemer. Sources differ as to the actual date that this fil was released. Some say 1955 while others put it at 1957 and 1958. the film itself shows no date in its credits."
David In TN: To me Bogarde was always better as a bad guy. Noir Alley will not be on in March. Maybe this is a good thing considering Eddie's selections the last year.
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