According to the fellow who introduced it on Turner Classic Movies, this 1953 Alfred Hitchcock film was not well thought of by Hitchcock. I'm not a great Hitchcock fan–I enjoy his classics (not including Psycho, which was really too much for me) , but haven't understood why some consider him a great artist. So I'm probably not the right person to evaluate this in comparison with his more famous work. But I thought it was very good.
It's about a young Catholic priest who hears a murderer's confession, and then becomes a suspect in the same murder, and cannot clear himself without violating the seal of the confessional. Montgomery Clift plays the priest, looking a bit too much like a movie star to be quite believable, and there's a romantic angle that isn't totally convincing, but overall it's very well done, and portrays the characters, not only the priest but the others, as having a kind of maturity and dignity that's too often lacking in contemporary movies. Karl Malden is very good as the detective who is convinced that the priest is the killer. The Catholic aspects of the story are handled very respectfully, not used to score cheap points (again in contrast to current habits). Definitely worth watching if you like movies from this period.
Light On Dark Water 
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