The Paradine Case
The dramatic case of a beautiful woman whose trial for murder held the nation spellbound.
Country
Production
Budget
$4 258 000
Box office
$2 100 000
Director
Actors
Scenario
Producer
Camera operator
Composer
Artist
J. McMillan Johnson
Audition
Editing
Short description
In London, barrister Anthony Keane takes the case of Maddalena Paradine, a beautiful woman accused of poisoning her blind husband. Though happily married, Keane becomes infatuated with his enigmatic client and convinced of her innocence. His obsession clouds his judgment as he builds a defense implicating her servant, André Latour—an act that leads to devastating consequences both in court and at home.
What's left behind the scenes
- Director's cameo: Alfred Hitchcock can be seen as a man with a cello in the crowd of people exiting the train.
- After a record-breaking shooting period for him (92 days), Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) handed over the fully filmed movie to the studio, its duration was almost three hours. The version shown to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences was cut down to 2 hours 12 minutes. In this version, Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959) portrays the half-mad wife of Lord Horfield, which, in fact, explains her Oscar nomination. Then, producer David O. Selznick (1902-1965) reduced the film to 2 hours 5 minutes, and then to its current length – 1 hour 54 minutes, with Barrymore’s screen time in this version limited to just 3 minutes or so. In 1980, the original version of the film (before all the cuts) was destroyed by a flood, making the restoration of the deleted material now quite problematic, although it is claimed that copies of some scenes have been preserved in the George Eastman Museum (one of the oldest film archives in the world) in Rochester, New York.
- An exact replica of the Old Bailey courtroom was built for the film's theatrical adaptation.
- Alfred Hitchcock liked the actors and actresses involved in the film, but he felt that Gregory Peck (1916-2003), Alida Valli (1921-2006) and Louis Jourdan (1921-2015) were poorly suited to their roles. Producer David O. Selznick insisted on casting them in these roles.
- The film's production cost was virtually identical to that of the 1939 historical melodrama "Gone with the Wind" by Victor Fleming (1899-1949), George Cukor (1899-1983), and Sam Wood (1883-1949). Scenes were repeatedly reshot due to the insistence of producer David O. Selznick, who also constantly offered unsolicited advice to Alfred Hitchcock, whose work was meticulously planned in advance and down to the smallest detail. Hitchcock's contract stipulated $1,000 per day of filming, and ultimately Selznick took over the film entirely – including overseeing the editing and resolving issues with the musical score.
- The original screenplay was written by Ben Hecht (1894-1964) and James Bridie (1888-1951) based on an adaptation by Alma Reville (1899-1982). However, producer David O. Selznick disliked the result, so he became one of the screenwriters, and in the credits, he was listed as the sole author of the screenplay.
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Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
