The Paradine Case
Born Today
Home / The Paradine Case

The Paradine Case

Year:
Duration:
125 min | 119 min (re-release) | 132 min (original release) | 94 min (edited television version) | 115 min (re-release) | Portugal:112 min
Genres:
Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller
IMDB rate:
6.5
Director:
Alfred Hitchcock
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar.
Details
Country: USA
Release Date: 1949-08-26
Filming Locations: Lake District, Cumbria, England, UK
Cast
Actor
Character
Alida Valli
Alida Valli
The Paradine Case
Gregory Peck
Anthony Keane
Ann Todd
Gay Keane
Charles Laughton
Judge Lord Thomas Horfield
Charles Coburn
Sir Simon Flaquer
Ethel Barrymore
Lady Sophie Horfield
Louis Jourdan
Andre Latour
Leo G. Carroll
Sir Joseph
Joan Tetzel
Judy Flaquer
Isobel Elsom
Innkeeper
Patrick Aherne
Police Sgt. Leggett (uncredited)
Gilbert Allen
Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Leonard Carey
Courtroom Stenographer (uncredited)
Elspeth Dudgeon
Second Matron (uncredited)
James Fairfax
Undetermined Role (uncredited)
John Goldsworthy
Lakin (uncredited)
Lumsden Hare
Courtroom Attendant (uncredited)
Alec Harford
Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Sam Harris
Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
Alfred Hitchcock
Man Carrying Cello Case
Colin Hunter
Baker (uncredited)
Boyd Irwin
Courtroom Observer (uncredited)
Colin Keith-Johnston
Clerk of the Court (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp
Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
Colin Kenny
Juror (uncredited)
Thomas Martin
Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
Lester Matthews
Police Inspector Ambrose (uncredited)
Phyllis Morris
Mrs. Carr (uncredited)
Edgar Norton
Courtroom Attendant (uncredited)
'Snub' Pollard
Cabby
Bert Stevens
Barrister in Courtroom (uncredited)
Arthur Tovey
Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
John Williams
Barrister Collins (uncredited)
Did you know?
Trivia
In the existing film (118 minutes), Ethel Barrymore only has about 3 minutes of screen time, as Lady Horfield. However, the original 130 minute film included several additional scenes with Barrymore, which were among those cut by producer David O. Selznick. The 130-minute version was screened for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences before Selznick cut it down, which explains why Barrymore received an Oscar nomination for such a small part. The scenes cut from the film included Lady Horfield meeting with Anthony Keane in an art gallery, and begging him to get Mrs. Paradine off, and more scenes of Lady Horfield sitting in the courtroom balcony, trying to control her coughing while the Paradine trial is going on.
Share this
In the adaptation by Alma Reville and James Bridie, Malcolm Keane (Anthony Keane in the film) is an Irish man, and Gregory Peck was of Irish descent.
Share this
Alfred Hitchcock and David O. Selznick wanted either Ronald Colman or Sir Laurence Olivier for the role "Malcolm Keane." But both were unavailable: Colman was making "A Double Life" and Olivier was making his version of "Hamlet". So the role went to Gregory Peck. And the name "Malcolm Keane" was changed to "Anthony Keane."
Share this
Goofs
Although the film story is all based in UK, but almost all of the characters speak in an American accent.
Share this
Latour is in shadow when he first meets Mr. Keane, but it is plain that his lips are not moving when he speaks.
Share this
When Keane goes to the Paradine house in Cumberland, he walks over to Mrs. Paradine's piano. On the piano we see close-up of a page of music called Appassionata Op. 69 by Francesco Ceruomo. But in the next scene, when we see Keane passing by the piano, none of the three pages on it have any title at the top, only music, showing they are subsequent pages of that piece, and not the first one, as shown in the close-up.
Share this
Quotes
Sir Joseph, Counsel for the Prosecution: She had patience. She could wait. This was, indeed, no ordinary woman.
Share this
Judge Lord Thomas Horfield: I do not like to be interrupted in the middle of an insult.
Share this
Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine: I have nothing more to say to you, Mr. Keane. I loved Andre Latour... and you murdered him. My life is finished; it is you yourself who have finished it. My only comfort is the hatred and contempt I feel for you!
Share this
Faq
Q
Greer Garson---Was She Suppose to Star in "Paradine Case"?
A
Chicago Tribune, Monday, October 12, 1942, p. 21, c. 6:LOOKING AT HOLLYWOODby Hedda HopperIt's All Ill WindGreer Garson is inheriting still another picture set for Garbo. It was a Robert Hichens novel, never published here, sold to Irving Thalberg years ago by Alice Williamson---remember her? It's "The Paradine Case." Garbo turned it down because it's a dual part--one good and one bad. And she doesn't want to play any more hussies. Ha! I wonder what she thinks she made her reputation on. . . .___________________________________
Q
TV Premiere Happened When?
A
Chicago Tribune, June 29, 1956:TOWER TICKERby Herb Lyon. . . . Jim [Courtesy Man] Moran landed "The Paradine Case," starring Greg Peck, to tee off his new Thurs. night TV movie series [starting July 19]. This one is currently playing in theaters around town, which is somep'n. . . .__________________________________
Q
"Paradine," "Rope"---Why Did Hitchcock Film Them As He Did?
A
Chicago Tribune, Sunday, November 23, 1947, pt. 6, p. 12, c. 4:THIS TOWN CALLED HOLLYWOODby Philip ScheuerHollywood [Special]Funny thing about Alfred Hitchcock. He made his name as a master chase director in such films as The 30 Steps, Saboteur and Foreign Correspondent; the whole world was his oyster. Then suddenly he began to squeeze his actors into smaller and smaller spacesan English manor house in Rebecca, a suburban home in Shadow of a Doubt, a lifeboat in Lifeboat, And in The Paradine Case, just completed, at least half the drama is confined within the courtroom of Londons Old Bailey.But all theseso the rumor wentwere just a warmup for his next: Rope. Hitchcock would shoot Rope in one room. He would shoot Rope in four days. And if he did, said the skeptics, he would probably hang himself.Last week I asked him to scotch the rumoror confirm it.Hitch did neither. He compromised. He said it would not be one room, but one apartment, hallway, living room, dining room and kitchen. For him, that was really spreading himself.As for the shooting time: Because of the nature of the story, we shall have to rehearse it wellwhereas today most actors and technicians come on a set cold. By rehearsing first, we hope to make the shooting go quickermuch quicker.The nature of the story is this: Two grown boys murder a third for the intellectual pleasure of it. They hide his body in a chest. The chest is on the stage all the time. The boys invite their friends over. One of them is an intellectual as they areand as dangerous. They invite him for the thrill of it. They live to regret it.This is not a stunt, Hitchcock emphasizes, but it is a challenge.The motion picture is nearest in form to the short story. With a book you read a few chapters, put it down, pick it up again. With a stage play you have intermissions.A movie runs continuously. Rope offers us the opportunity to do a movie in its purest story telling form. The elapsed time of this story is one hour and 40 minutes. Our picture will run one hour and 40 minutes. It is one of the few subjects I have come across which can be told in the same time it takes a film to play.This is its challengeand its fascination for me; To see if I can hold an audience continuously for 100 minutes.But why, I persisted, had he given up the chase for the k illthe whole English countryside [or any other] for a figurative telephone booth? Was it a reaction against the chase itselfto avoid being typedor what?A reaction, maybe, he shrugged. But, he mined me, two-thirds of Blackmail, his first talkie [1929] took place in a tobacco store and a room beyond; the balance was a pursuit thru the British museum. And The Lady Vanishes was both a chase and a drama in one localea moving train.I would still do a chase if it were different enough, he added. Imagine, and his eyes gleameda chase limited to a single city blockan office building, saywith its effect shown on all the inhabitants of that block!It is not the setting, but what goes on in front of it that is important. Your average shot in a picture is a waist shot; that is from the waist up. What remainsperhaps 40 per cent of the screenis background and is not even seen, at least consciously.Two people are locked in an embrace. If they detach themselves the spell breaks. Remember the love scene between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Notorious? The camera moved with them thru several rooms and still remained close. That way it maintained what I call pictorial tension thruout.The ordinary courtroom movie isolates a few dramatic highlights and calls the result a trial. About 70 minutes of The Paradine Case takes place in Old Bailey, with Valli as the defendant, Mrs. Paradine; Gregory Peck as her counselor and Louis Jourdan as a key witness.I think you will get the feeling of a trial in its natural order, with everybody present absorbing the evidence as it comes to light, step by step. In San Diego, where we had a sneak preview, there were several gasps from the audience in the theaterquite as if they were actual spectators in the gallery of Old Bailey.In truth, of course, they knew more than the gallery spectators; they had already been in on the private lives of the principals in the first half of the film. The trial was a stage play, as it were, and they enjoyed the privilege of standing in the wings.That, he explained, is the secret of good drama: To let the audience be God._________________________
Share this
Photos from cast
Alida Valli
cookie clipart girly holy family catholic church cute chocolate chip cookie clipart