The Paradine Case

In London, Maddalena Anna Paradine is a very beautiful and enigmatic young Italian woman who is accused of poisoning her older, blind husband, a wealthy retired colonel. It is not clear whether she is a grateful and devoted wife who has been falsely charged or a calculating and ruthless femme fatale. Mrs. Paradine's solicitor, Sir Simon Flaquer, hires Anthony Keane, a brilliant and successful barrister, to defend her in court. Although Keane has been happily married for eleven years, he instantly becomes deeply infatuated with his client. Keane's wife, Gay, notices his growing obsession, and although he offers to relinquish the case, presses him to continue. She knows that a "guilty" verdict, followed by Mrs. 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 French-Canadian manservant, André Latour, DCM & Bar. Keane sees Latour as a scapegoat on whom he can pin the crime of murder, but this strategy backfires. After Keane repeatedly badgers Latour in court, triggering an angry outburst, word comes that Latour has killed himself. Mrs. Paradine is coldly furious that (contrary to her express instructions) Keane has destroyed Latour, who was her lover. In the witness box, she tells Keane that she hates him and that he has murdered the only person she loved. She goes so far as to say that she poisoned her husband in order to be with Latour. Keane is overwhelmed. Attempting to summarize, he improvises a brief and faltering speech, admitting how poorly he has handled the case; unable to continue speaking, he has to leave the court. He stays overnight at Sir Simon's office, knowing that his career is in ruins. Finding him there, his wife offers reconciliation and hope for the future. ==Cast==

;Cast notes • It is reported that Hitchcock originally wanted Greta Garbo to play Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine, but she turned down the role after the screen test, Both Valli and Jourdan hoped that the film would give them the status in the U.S. that they enjoyed in their home countries (Italy and France, respectively), but that did not happen, though Jourdan later made many U.S. films. ==Production==

David O. Selznick had purchased the rights to Robert Smythe Hichens' novel in 1933, before it was published, when Selznick was still at MGM, with Greta Garbo in mind to star – indeed, Garbo was Hichens' inspiration for the creation of Mrs. Paradine. Garbo did consider doing the film, but ultimately turned it down. She had decided to retire from acting. (Garbo had also turned down I Remember Mama at about the same time, and is reputed to have said "No murderesses, no mamas". According to his biographer Donald Spoto "...Hitchcock's disgust with the content and method that were forced upon him conspired to produce an uneasy atmosphere from which Hitchcock could scarcely wait to extricate himself." Gregory Peck said of the director, "He seemed really bored with the whole thing..." The film was in production from December 19, 1946, to May 7, 1947, with retakes done in November of that year. Although some external shots show the Lake District in Cumbria, the rest of the footage was shot on three sets at Selznick's lot in Culver City, California, a first in Selznick's career as an independent producer. The completed film cost an estimated $4,258,000 to make, almost as much as Gone with the Wind. Selznick maintained close supervision on the production, and interfered with Hitchcock's normally carefully budgeted process by demanding extensive re-takes. When Hitchcock insisted on receiving his contractual $1000/day fee, Selznick took over post-production, supervising the editing and the scoring of the film. The producer went through eighteen different title changes for the picture before rechristening it The Paradine Case, just hours before the premiere. The Paradine Case opened December 29, 1947, in Los Angeles and in two theaters across the street from each other in Westwood, California The film was initially 132 minutes long, Selznick having editing down Hitchcock's rough cut of almost three hours. Before general release, however, Selznick further reduced the running time to 114 minutes, which is also the current length of the DVD release. In 1980, a flood reportedly destroyed the uncut original version of the film, making a restoration unlikely. The Paradine Case was not a box office success, worldwide receipts barely covering half of the cost of production. Hitchcock put in a cameo appearance in most of his films. In this film, he can be seen leaving the Cumberland train station, carrying a cello, at about 38 minutes. Hitchcock described The Paradine Case as "...a love story embedded in the emotional quicksand of a murder trial". Production credits The production credits on the film were as follows: • Director – Alfred Hitchcock • Producer – David O. Selznick • Writing – David O. Selznick (screenplay), Alma Reville (adaptation) • Cinematography – Lee Garmes (director of photography) • Music – Franz Waxman • Art direction – Joseph McMillan Johnson (production design), Thomas N. Morahan (art director), Joseph B. Platt (interiors), Emile Kuri (set decoration) • Costumes – Travis Banton (gowns) • Editor – Hal C. Kern (supervising film editor) • Sound – James G. Stewart (sound director), Richard Van Hessen (recorder) • Assistant director – Lowell J. Farrell • Unit manager – Fred Ahern • Special effects – Clarence Slifer • Hair styles – Larry Germain ==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." Variety wrote, "high dramatics...Hitchcock's penchant for suspense and unusual atmosphere development get full play. There is a deliberateness of pace, artful pauses and other carefully calculated melodramatic hinges upon which he swings the story and players. Time Out said: "Bleak in its message (those who love passionately inevitably destroy the object of their desire), the movie only half works. The intricate, triangular plot is finally overburdened by the courtroom setting." In The Nation in 1948, critic James Agee wrote, "Hitchcock uses a lot of skill over a lot of nothing... The picture never for an instant comes to life. This is the wordiest script since the death of Edmund Burke." Leonard Maltin said "talk, talk, talk in complicated, stagy courtroom drama;" Despite the mixed reviews the movie received, most critics noted the strong performances of Ann Todd and Joan Tetzel. ==Awards and honors==

Ethel Barrymore was nominated for a 1947 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as Lady Sophie Horfield. ==Adaptation==

Lux Radio Theatre broadcast a radio adaptation of the film on 9 May 1949, starring Joseph Cotten, with Alida Valli and Louis Jourdan reprising their roles. ==References==