Customer Reviews

Alfred Hitchcock - The Paradine Case

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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Alfred Hitchcock's THE PARADINE CASE is an interesting film from this director. On the surface it appears to be about a courtroom murder case where the accused Misses Paradine (Alida Valli) is defended by barrister (Gregory Peck) who becomes infatuated by here statuesque beauty and in doing so undermines his marriage to Ann Todd. Valli is accused of murdering her husband who we never see in person but only in a portrait. We never actually see the murder on screen. We must rely on the testimony of the witnesses to come to some conclusion about Mister Paradine's demise. Louis Jourdan is the late Mister Paradine's manservant. His relationship to both Mister and Misses Paradine leaves many questions for the viewer. Jourdan who delivers one of his best performances expertly plays this pivotal character. The film is really about relationships ending and evolving and to a degree about relationships that are imagined. Relationships end or are put on hold. Relationships reveal sharp realities for the central characters and they must come to terms with their own conduct. Other relationships such as Charels Laughton and his wife Ethel Barrymore have remained static and listless. They each fulfill what is left of a relationship that should never have been. The submissive Barrymore dutifully endures the bullying nature of Laughton, the presiding judge. Being a David O. Selznick's picture the production is lavish yet somehow it is overshadowed by the bleak nature of the screenplay. The production values are almost a counterpoint to the story and to actress Valli's rather sullen performance, which remains a bit of an enigma. Gregory Peck's performance is very good. Because of his basic good nature the viewer feels for his flawed character and his realization of this that will no doubt come by the end of the film. Louis Jourdan flat out gives a memorable and impressive performance showing off his mastery of histrionics. This film deserves long overdue attention.

Misinterpreted and forgotten, THE PARADINE CASE is an opulent production concerning the elegant and strikingly sculptured and inscrutable Mrs. Paradine placed on trial for the murder of her husband. Mrs. Paradine is played with delicate radiance by Alida Valli who embodies the alluring vision of pulchritude that barrister Gregory Peck has created and fallen under the spell of. Gregory Peck's obsessive character is a forerunner to James Stewart's role in Hitchcock's VERTIGO. Obsessive behavior can be destructive as is seen in the relationship that Peck has with his loyal wife portrayed by Ann Todd. However, the greatest role and performance in this film is in the form of Louis Jourdan. Jourdan is an unwavering curiosity in his quixotic role as Mr. Paradine's manservant. His relationship with Mrs. Paradine and her late husband remains a conundrum. Jourdan's performance as a man of steadfast loyalty to both duty and passion is one of brilliance. Alfred Hitchcock's THE PARADINE CASE is a film that is by some means misinterpreted and thus forgotten.

The slick touch of Hitchcock is obvios throughout this film. Not as well known as many of his, this movie is more subtle than "The Birds" or "Witness for the Prosecution", but all the more wonderful for that. A study in personality and relationships rather than blood, gore and destruction make it more satisfying (in my opinion). Gregory Peck at his best with a good supporting cast and the matchless Hitchcock camera angles. I think one of his best.

Like the other reviewers here, I agree that this truly adult and enigmatic Hitchcock film has never gotten the attention it deserves. Tony Keane's fixation with the accused murderer Mrs. Paradine looks ahead to Scottie Fergusson's equally obsessed one with Madeleine in Vertigo. In a way, marriage and femininity are also on trial in this film. Mrs. Paradine marries a man she doesn't love for his money and ends going on trial for murder. Keane's wife Gay is loving, but she's also an enabler, endlessly making excuses for Tony's poor behavior as a husband (and lack of professionalism as a barrister). She stands by her man . . . but why? Gay's friend Judy is an unmarried woman who, denied a chance to be a lawyer because of her gender, provides Gay (and us) with her shrewd commentary on Tony's courtroom behavior. But will any man ever want to marry such an outspoken young woman? Maybe the most pathetic female character is the judge's wife, who passively puts up with his crude misogyny. Only when Mrs. Paradine is threatened with the gallows does she begin to confront the emotional deadness of her own marriage. None of the women (not to mention all the dour female courtroom attendants that Hitchcock's camera lingers over) are at real peace with themselves.

The two main male characters, (Tony and Andre) are, in a sense, contaminated by the women's malaise. Tony is accused by the judge of creating an "overly emotional" atmosphere in the courtroom. And the sexually ambiguous André's acts are driven solely by love. In the end, Keane's drained and vulnerable character foreshadows the equally drained Fergusson we see at the end of Vertigo. Neither man knows what hit them. But have they learned anything from their experience? And will they ever have the capacity to relate to women who haven't been through what Judy astutely calls "the mud"? The verdict's still out.

A beautiful woman is accused of murdering her husband; and a young criminal lawyer will try by all his means, to demonstrate her innocence, although on the road he will fall in love with her.

An uneven film considering the stature of his director.

The movie is very proud to be a David O. Selznick film and displays it proudly at the beginning.

This is one of those movies where you go "yeah yeah" I saw before. You are probably thinking of Richard Attenborough's " Trial and Error" (1962) or Billy Wilder's "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957). Much of this film is predictable and then again maybe not. Remember this is a 1947 film.

Rich old blind Mr. Paradine, of whom we never met, is found dead; is it suicide or is it murder? Soon Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine (Alida Valli) is accused of having motive and opportunity.

Assigned to defend Maddalena is Anthony Keane, Counsel for the Defense (Gregory Peck). Even with Mrs. Paradine's wild past and alluring continence, Anthony, a happily married man, is sure threat the butler (o.k. the valet) did it. We the viewers also want to help him, as it is obvious if it was not the Andre Latour, Paradine's Valet (a very young Louis Jourdan) than you know who will hang. Not only that but we find the valet to be quite devious.

A plus that gives this film added character is Charles Laughton as Judge Lord Thomas Horfield.

Trial and Error (aka The Dock Brief)
Witness For the Prosecution

Almost no one associated with "The Paradine Case" was pleased by the result: not Selznick, who produced it as the last of a what turned out to be a three-picture deal with Hitchcock for his studio (the others being "Rebecca" and "Spellbound"); not the director, whose motives for accepting the project seemed fuzzy even to him in hindsight; not Gregory Peck, who claimed to have liked it least of all his films. "Paradine" is no Hitchcock classic; yet neither is it a dud. Though dated, it is a handsomely mounted, interesting study of obsession that "Vertigo" would deliver in spades a decade later. This film also features Charles Laughton, stealing the show in a supporting role, and Louis Jordan in his film debut. (Note: Because this film is currently so hard to find on DVD, I took a chance on a Chinese import and was not disappointed.)