Monty, Hitch, 'I Confess'---items:

Chicago Tribune, April 4, 1952, s. 2, p. 8, c. 1:

LOOKING AT HOLLYWOOD

by Hedda Hopper

. . . . While Montgomery Clift was here, he had conferences with Alfred Hitchcock on doing a picture. It's "I Confess," and in it Monty would play a priest to whom a man confessed a murder. All the criminal evidence points to the priest, but he cannot tell the real story because revelations of confession are forbidden by the church. Hitchcock tells us that he did discuss the matter with Clift, but at the moment he is not negotiating to get him for the film.

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same,May 16, 1952, s. 2, p. 8, c. 1:

. . . . Alfred Hitchcock won't get "I Confess," with Monty Clift, started in Quebec, Canada, until the middle of July. Doesn't know who the girl will be, but she'll have to fit Monty's personality.

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From reading the above one gets the impression that Hitchcock wasn't too enthusiastic for Clift. In the next entry the female lead hasn't been settled on . . . I wonder who he was considereing? If not Mrs. John Hodiak--who?

Also, in this film, he finally gets a chance to work with Brian Aherne--he had already done two films with Mrs. Ahern, back in the forties . . .