The Paradine Case (1947) on Netflix
Approved19471h 54mCrimeDramaRomance
In London, Maddalena Anna Paradine is charged with poisoning her blind husband, a retired colonel. Barrister Anthony Keane takes her defense, and his wife Gay watches his obsession grow.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.5/1013,620 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes77%
Trailer
Plot summary
Maddalena Anna Paradine, an Italian woman in London, is charged with poisoning her husband, a retired colonel who was wealthy and blind. She says she is innocent. Her solicitor, Sir Simon Flaquer, hires the barrister Anthony Keane to defend her. Keane is successful in his career and has been married to Gay for eleven years. At their first meeting he becomes infatuated with his client, and Gay notices his growing obsession.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Paradine Case (1947)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Robert Smythe Hichens created Mrs. Paradine with Greta Garbo as his inspiration, and David O. Selznick bought the novel in 1933 with her in mind. Garbo considered the film but turned it down to retire from acting, having also refused I Remember Mama around the same time and being reputed to have said, "No murderesses, no mamas".
SPOILER
MGM sent a draft of the script to the Hays Office, whose censors warned it would likely be rejected because Mrs. Paradine was guilty of murder, adultery and perjury and later committed suicide; they also objected to the judge being written as a sadist who enjoyed sending people to their deaths.- For the courtroom scenes Hitchcock ran four cameras simultaneously, each focused on a different principal actor, with elaborately choreographed crane shots, letting him shoot takes of about ten minutes, a limit he would push further on Rope (1948) and Under Capricorn (1949).
- The courtroom set exactly duplicated a courtroom in London's Old Bailey, photographed with permission by unit manager Fred Ahern, and was built in 85 days for $80,000, unusually fitted with ceilings to allow low camera angles.
- David O. Selznick demanded extensive re-takes, interfering with Hitchcock's carefully budgeted process, and when Hitchcock insisted on his contractual $1000-a-day fee, the producer took over post-production, supervising the editing and scoring. Selznick went through eighteen title changes before renaming it The Paradine Case hours before the premiere.
- In 1946 Hitchcock was announced as director with Laurence Olivier to star as the barrister, but Olivier turned the project down because he was preparing his own production of Hamlet.
- A 1980 flood reportedly destroyed the uncut original version of the film, making a restoration unlikely, after Selznick had cut Hitchcock's rough cut of almost three hours down to 132 minutes and then 114 minutes.
- The Paradine Case was the last film Alfred Hitchcock made under his seven-year contract with David O. Selznick, an association the director may have tired of by that time.
