The Paradine Case
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| The Paradine Case | |
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 DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Produced by | David O. Selznick |
| Written by | Story: Robert S. Hichens Screenplay: David O. Selznick Ben Hecht |
| Starring | Gregory Peck Ann Todd Joan Tetzel Alida Valli Charles Laughton |
| Music by | Franz Waxman Paul Dessau |
| Cinematography | Lee Garmes |
| Distributed by | Selznick Releasing Organization |
| Release date(s) | December 31, 1947 (U.S.A.) |
| Running time | 125 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Paradine Case (1947) is a courtroom drama film, set in England. The film was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by David O. Selznick.
The screenplay was written by David O. Selznick and Ben Hecht, adapted by Alma Reville and James Bridie from the novel by Robert S. Hichens.[1]
The film stars Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Joan Tetzel, Alida Valli, Charles Laughton, Louis Jourdan, Charles Coburn and Ethel Barrymore.
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[edit] Plot
Anna Paradine (Alida Valli) is a very beautiful and enigmatic young foreign woman who is accused of poisoning her older, blind husband, a retired military man. It is not clear at first whether perhaps she is a grateful and devoted wife who has been falsely accused, or whether she is in fact a calculating and ruthless femme fatale, a female psychopath.
Mrs. Paradine hires Anthony Keane (Gregory Peck), a brilliant and very successful barrister, to defend her in court. Although Keane has been happily married for 11 years, he instantly becomes deeply infatuated with this exotic, mysterious, and fascinating client.
Keane's kind-hearted wife Gay (Ann Todd) sees his infatuation. Although her husband offers to get off the case, she presses him to continue. She knows that a guilty verdict, followed by Paradine's hanging, will mean that she will lose her husband emotionally forever. The only way that she can regain her husband's love and devotion is if he is able to obtain a "not guilty" verdict for Mrs. Paradine.
Meanwhile Keane himself starts to focus his legal efforts on Colonel Paradine's mysterious servant, Andre Latour (Louis Jourdan). Consciously or unconsciously, Keane sees Latour as a suitable scapegoat on whom he can pin the crime of murder.
Keane's strategy backfires. After Keane has pressured Latour in court, hoping to trigger an angry outburst, word comes that Latour has killed himself.
Anna Paradine is coldly furious that Keane has destroyed Latour, who was in fact her lover. On the witness stand she tells Keane she hates him, and that he has killed the only person she loved, the person she had killed her husband in order to be with.
Keane is overwhelmed, physically, intellectually and emotionally. Attempting to sum up, he improvises a brief and faltering speech. He admits how poorly he has handled the case, but cannot continue speaking and has to leave the court.
He goes home to his wife feeling that his career is in ruins. His wife gives him hope for the future.
[edit] Production
It has been suggested that Hitchcock was tired of his association with Selznick by the time this film —- the last under Hitchcock's seven-year contract with Selznick -— was made. Hitchcock described it as "...a love story embedded in the emotional quicksand of a murder trial."
Hitchcock had originally hoped to cast Laurence Olivier in the role of the barrister, and Ingrid Bergman or Greta Garbo as Mrs. Paradine. Despite the poor reviews of the movie, most critics noted the strong performances of Ann Todd and Joan Tetzel. Ethel Barrymore received an Academy Award nomination for her brief but moving performance as the judge's wife.
[edit] Background
Alfred Hitchcock cameo: A signature occurrence in almost all of Hitchcock's films, he can be seen leaving the train at Cumberland Station, carrying a cello, at about 35 minutes into the film.
Alfred Hitchcock's rough cut of The Paradine Case ran close to 3 hours. David O. Selznick, however, trimmed the film into 132 minutes and finally to 114 minutes. The released DVD versions of The Paradine Case has 114 minutes.
[edit] Cast
- Gregory Peck as Anthony Keane, Counsel for the Defense
- Ann Todd as Gay Keane
- Charles Laughton as Judge Lord Thomas Horfield
- Charles Coburn as Sir Simon Flaquer
- Ethel Barrymore as Lady Sophie Horfield
- Louis Jourdan as Andre Latour, Paradine's Valet
- Alida Valli as Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine
- Leo G. Carroll as Sir Joseph, Counsel for the Prosecution
- Joan Tetzel as Judy Flaquer
- Isobel Elsom as Innkeeper
[edit] Critical reception
Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, liked the film, the acting, and Hitchcock's direction, and wrote, "With all the skill in presentation for which both gentlemen are famed, David O. Selznick and Alfred Hitchcock have put upon the screen a slick piece of static entertainment in their garrulous The Paradine Case ...Gregory Peck is impressively impassioned as the famous young London barrister who lets his heart, cruelly captured by his client, rule his head. And Ann Todd, the pliant British actress, is attractively anguished as his wife. Alida Valli, an import from Italy, makes the caged Mrs. Paradine a compound of mystery, fascination and voluptuousness with a pair of bedroom eyes, and Louis Jourdan, a new boy from Paris, is electric as the badgered valet."[2]
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ The Paradine Case at the Internet Movie Database.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, "Selznick and Hitchcock Join Forces on Paradine Case," January 8, 1948. Last accessed: January 6, 2008.
[edit] External links
- The Paradine Case at the Internet Movie Database
- The Paradine Case at Allmovie
- The Paradine Case at the TCM Movie Database
- The Paradine Case at Alfred Hitchcock the Master of Suspense
- The Paradine Case at Rogue Press
- The Paradine Case at DVD Beaver (includes images)
- The Paradine Case at Alfred Hitchcock Wiki
- The Paradine Case at Eyegate Gallery
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