Movies
Paradine Case, The (TCF 1947, Gregory Peck, Louis Jordan)
The Paradine Case is the last of the films Alfred Hitchcock directed under producer David O. Selznick, who co-wrote the script. A happily married English barrister (Gregory Peck) falls in love with a beautiful client (Alida Valli) accused of murdering her husband. Peck learns of Valli’s affair with her stableman (Louis Jourdan) and calls him to the stand. The result is a stunning reversal and death. An unhappy collaboration between Hitch and Selznick resulting in a second-rank Hitchcock. In pure Selznick style, nearly a third of the film’s budget went to re-creating the original courtroom on the set. Valli and Jourdan’s American film debuts.
The Paradine Case has the first appearance in an Alfred Hitchcock production by character actor John Williams, who would later star in Dial M for Murder (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955) and many of Hitchcock’s TV shows.
Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress: Ethel Barrymore.
production details
USA | Twentieth Century Fox | 125 minutes | 1947
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Script: James Bridie, Ben Hecht, Alma Reville, David O. Selznick, Robert Hichens, Twentieth Century Fox
cast
Gregory Peck as Anthony Keane
Charles Laughton as Judge Lord Thomas Horfield
Alida Valli as Mrs. Paradine
Ann Todd as Gay Keane
Charles Coburn as Sir Simon Flaquer
Louis Jourdan as Andre Latour
Isobel Elsom as Innkeeper
Leo G. Carroll as Sir Joseph
Ethel Barrymore as Lady Sophie Horfield
Joan Tetzel as Judy Flaquer
‘Snub’ Pollard as Cabby (uncredited)