The Rosary Murders

Although director Walton worked with Elmore Leonard, no less, in adapting William X Kienzle's novel for the screen, somewhere along the line someone must have seen Hitchcock's I Confess, to which this suspense thriller bears a distinct resemblence. Here it's Father Sutherland who hears the confession of Detroit's most wanted man, the killer who's targeted the city's priests, but instead of breaking his vow of secrecy, this man of the cloth takes to the streets to track down the perpetrator himself. Oddly enough, the more derivative first half works better than the lame detective work in the second.