Hitchcock Chronology: I Confess (1953)

Entries in the Hitchcock Chronology relating to I Confess (1953)...

1951

May

• 20th - The Hitchcock family fly into Montreal, Québec, Canada, from London aboard British Airways flight 601/377. They then tour Montreal and Quebec City — the latter would become the location for I Confess. Finally, the Hitchcocks drive down the Maine Coast to Boston and New York City, ending their two-month long vacation.

1952

February

• Alma Reville beings re-working a treatment for I Confess that she had originally drafted in 1948 for Transatlantic Pictures.
• Alma and Alfred Hitchcock travel to Quebec to scout locations for I Confess.

March

• The Hitchcocks travel to New York to meet writer William Archibald, who is hired to work on the I Confess screenplay.

April

• Dramatist George Tabori is hired to revise the dialogue of William Archibald's screenplay for I Confess.
• Warner Bros object to elements of the screenplay for I Confess, including the ending which has the priest being executed, forcing Hitchcock and Barbara Keon to hastily rewrite the scenes.
• Hitchcock, Sidney Bernstein and writer George Tabori travel to Quebec to scout locations and hire local actors for I Confess. Local priest Father Paul La Couline is hired as a technical consultant and to act as a liaison with the Catholic Church.

May

• Pre-production and casting continues for I Confess throughout May and June.

June

• Montgomery Clift is cast to play the central role of the priest in I Confess.

July

• 24th - Hitchcock, Jack Warner and Montgomery Clift meet with Anita Björk in New York to consider her for the lead role I Confess and to conduct costume tests. Afterwards, Warner insists on casting another actress and Hitchcock selects Anne Baxter for the role.

August

• 21st - I Confess principal photography begins in Quebec. Hitchcock hires Barbara Keon to work on several of the film's more difficult scenes.

October

• 2nd - With location work completed, the filming of I Confess moves to the Warner studios.
• Filming on I Confess is completed by late October.

1953

February

• I Confess opens to lukewarm reviews.

March

• I Confess premieres in New York City.

1966

July

• 23rd - Actor Montgomery Clift, who starred in I Confess, dies aged 46.

1979

November

• 11th - Composer Dimitri Tiomkin, who worked with Hitchcock on Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, I Confess and Dial M for Murder, dies aged 85.

1985

December

• 12th - Actress Anne Baxter, who appeared in I Confess, dies of a brain aneurysm whilst walking down Madison Avenue in New York City, aged 62.

2007

July

• 23rd - Hungarian writer George Tabori, who worked with Hitchcock on I Confess, dies aged 93.

2009

July

• 1st - Actor Karl Malden, who appeared in I Confess, dies aged 97.