The Paradine Case (1947) | Presenting Hitchcock Podcast

Gooooood evening. In this months episode of Presenting Hitchcock, Cory and Aaron love a good trial as they discuss “The Paradine Case.”

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The Picture:

Picture Title: The Paradine Case

Written by:

Based on the book by Robert Hichens

Adapted by Alma Reville

Screenplay by David O. Selznick

Starring:

Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn, Ethel Barrymore, Louis Jourdan and Alida Valli

Directed by:Alfred Hitchcock

Year Released: 1947

Our Favourite Trivia:

DIRECTOR CAMEO: Getting off a train at the Cumberland station carrying a cello.

While Sir Alfred Hitchcock liked the actors and actresses, he felt that Gregory Peck, Alida Valli, and Louis Jourdan were unsuited to their roles. Producer David O. Selznick asserted his power as studio head to insist that Hitchcock use them. Sir Alfred Hitchcock wanted to cast Sir Laurence Olivier or Ronald Colman as Anthony Keane, Greta Garbo or Ingrid Bergman as Mrs. Paradine, and Robert Newton as William Marsh, the role which became André Latour.

When Sir Alfred Hitchcock delivered the completed movie to the studio, after a Hitchcock record of ninety-two days of filming, it ran almost three hours. This rough cut was initially trimmed to two hours and twelve minutes, which was the version screened for the Academy of Arts & Sciences. Producer David O. Selznick subsequently cut the film to two hours and five minutes, and then to its present length of one hour and fifty-four minutes, mostly cutting Ethal Barrymore’s scenes down to only 3 minutes. In 1980, a flood reputedly destroyed the original, uncut version, making the restoration of the cutscenes unlikely, although it has been reported that some of these cut scenes reside at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.

Producer David O. Selznick originally wanted Bernard Herrmann to compose the score for this movie, but Herrmann wasn’t available due to other commitments, so Selznick decided to go with Leith Stevens, borrowing him from Universal Pictures at the cost of ten thousand dollars for eight weeks. Stevens composed and recorded nine cues, but Selznick rejected them, returning half of Stevens’ fee to Universal Pictures and returning the music and recordings to the composer. Eventually Franz Waxman was hired to do the score.

Ben Hecht and James Bridie wrote the original screenplay, based on the adaptation by Alma Reville. But Producer David O. Selznick wasn’t pleased, so he re-wrote the script, and received sole screenwriting credit.

The two shots of Old Bailey courthouse in London show the front left wing gutted. Although many London landmarks were damaged by German bombing during the 1940-1941 Blitz, repair work was still underway in 1946 when the film story was set. The image of the partly-ruined courthouse symbolizes the contemporary British will to conduct business as normal, in this case a murder trial, despite the damage inflicted.

The completed film cost an estimated $4,258,000 to make, almost as expensive as Gone with the Wind. Selznick maintained close supervision on the production, and interfered with Hitchcock’s normally carefully budgeted process by insisting on extensive re-takes. When Hitchcock insisted on receiving his contractual $1000/day fee, Selznick took over post-production, supervising the editing and the scoring of the film. The producer went through eighteen different title changes for the picture before rechristening it The Paradine Case, just hours before the premiere.

Ethel Barrymore was nominated for a 1947 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as Lady Sophie Horfield

This was Alfred Hitchcock’s last movie under contract with David O. Selznick.

The Random Draw for Next Picture:

Next up, we’ll be discussing “Lifeboat.”

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