FEBRUARY IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK MONTH
Perhaps the most problematic movie in Alfred Hitchcock’s American canon, 1947’s THE PARADINE CASE is now represented on High Definition Blu-Ray from the defense team at Kino-Lorber Studio Classics/ABC, Inc.
“Problematic” (for many) might be considered kind, as scores of the director’s enthusiasts term PARADINE as Hitchcock’s worst movie (Sir Alfred disagreed, citing 1933’s Waltzes from Vienna as the prime culprit). Truth be told, THE PARADINE CASE is not a bad movie, just not a great one. Hitchcock certainly did disown it for a variety of reasons. It was the last picture on his Selznick contract, a servitude he was particularly anxious to be rid of (Hitch had already begun proceedings with Sidney Bernstein to partner in their own production company, the initial title to be Rope). What made the picture a special kind of Hell was the fact that the oft intolerable David O. Selznick (who thought his very being as God’s gift to humanity) ultimately deigned his psyche the only one who could do justice to Robert Hichens’s scandalous novel (after rejecting James Bridie’s initial draft). Screenplay by the Producer heralds an especially bold in-your-face main credit. Selznick may have been many things, but a writer wasn’t one of them; the fact that his memos oft equaled the page numbers of Gone with the Wind doesn’t count. Hitchcock knew his name would be associated with the pic’s failings, so he and wife Alma (Reville) did work on the adaptation (and, reportedly, first draft). Even at the eleventh hour, it still didn’t pass muster, and an uncredited Ben Hecht (likely demanded by Hitchcock) was brought in to do a dialog touch-up.
The project itself was one of Hitch’s no-nos: a trial movie (albeit a lascivious one). Recent widow Maddalene Anna Paradine, an unabashed beauty, is arrested for the murder of her older, blind and fabulously wealthy husband – a British war hero. Her famed attorney, Sir Simon Flaquer, feels ill equipped to handle such a task, and suggests to her that she engage Anthony Keane, an iconic criminal trial barrister. Engage she does, as does he. The middle-aged master of his game, with full support of his stunning spouse, begins to do background checks on the lady and possible suspects – soon falling head over heels in love with her. The Hitchcock obsession theme surfaces here, as does his fear of police, depicted via Ms. Paradine’s first night in stir – an iron jail door clanging shut with a sound boost rivaling a bomb burst.
As Keane falls deeper into the darkness of forbidden love (along with some disturbing revelations about his client), he fights his anguish over the traumatic situation (he still loves his wife, and she him). Insult to injury, a mean girl verbal bitch slap by the accused to the smitten defense attorney in public court is genuinely devastating (for him and for viewers).
The production – one Hitchcock wanted to glide through – unfortunately, due to Selznick’s constant interference, seemed to go on forever (92 days!). Fans often display stills of Hitch’s frustration on-set, looking totally bored as underlining proof of his displeasure with the project. In actuality, Hitchcock often looked unimpressed during filming, considering it a mere formality; for him, the creative fun was in pre-production – planning out the shots in storyboard, and devising interesting (if not landmark) techniques for picture and sound.
But a constant hands-on Selznick involvement just made it worse. It began with the casting. Hitchcock and Selznick did agree on either Laurence Olivier or Ronald Colman for Keane, and Ingrid Bergman for the widow Paradine. Olivier and Colman were both busy on other pictures (Hamlet, A Double Life), and Bergman – at last free of her Selznick contract – rightly wanted nothing more to do with him. The producer decided to “discover” a new Bergman, and cast Italian actress Alida Valli in the role. A decent thesp, she nonetheless exhibited nothing of the passion Bergman could bring to the part. She’s a total ice princess – a demeanor that apparently spilled off screen into real life. LSS, she never caught on with Anglo audiences (save memorably in The Third Man, where, like in PARADINE, the cold detached persona sort of worked).
As for Keane, they went with gray-temple dyed Gregory Peck. Peck always chided this pic as a misfire, claiming he was way too young, even with the midlife crisis makeup. Plus, his lack of a British accent stuck out like a sore thumb. That said, he’s really very good in the part – enough so that these Peckish bumps rarely deter the narrative. Another no-show was Robert Newton, whom Hitchcock requested as the accused murderess’s illicit lover – a stable master, whom the director thought would immediately convince audiences of “a man [who] really reeked of manure.” This didn’t sit well with Selznick and Newton proved unavailable anyway, so the part was rewritten as a French-Canadian personal valet to Mr. Paradine, and became the debut of Louis Jourdan (who’s excellent in it).
The remainder of the cast is top line, and comprises Charles Coburn (as Sir Simon), Charles Laughton (as a sex pervert judge, salivating at Keane’s wife’s bare shoulders!),
Ethel Barrymore, Leo G. Carroll, Isabel Elsom, John Williams, Lumsden Hare, Lester Matthews, Edgar Norton, Joan Tetzel, and Ann Todd (the latter two deservedly capturing the plethora of the positive reviews in the overall lukewarm received final product).
That said, Selznick’s famous quote that there’s only “first class and no class” rings true as well. All the additional key positions on the pic are primo, including cinematography (Lee Garmes) and music (Franz Waxman). The producer, furthermore, pulled out all the promotional stops, primarily utilizing simultaneous big city first-run playdates (an unusual move at the time), and having the principals hawking an exceptionally large amount of movie tie-in consumer items.
Readers may be stunned to know that the flop result of THE PARADINE CASE didn’t entirely hover over poor attendance (actually, movie fans did turn out…just not enough). Amazingly, it ultimately cost as much to make as the producer’s Gone with the Wind. This encompassed a full-scale replica of the Old Bailey, at a 1947 cost of over $400,000.00 alone!
A lot of film was shot. A LOT. The first cut ran over three hours; Selznick chopped out a half-hour, then another twenty minutes, before finally releasing the general release 110-minute version. Viewers were a bit confused by preview cut critics who thought Ethel Barrymore warranted an Oscar (she received a nomination). Her finest moments, including drunken and psychotic emoting ended up on the editing room floor (reducing her total screen time to about three minutes). The chance of ever seeing the complete version literally sunk – a celluloid victim of a 1980 vault flood.
It’s, thus, astounding that any of THE PARADINE CASE makes sense, but it miraculously does. If one didn’t know it was a Hitchcock pic, one would hail it as a fairly entertaining racy highbrow post-war crime drama. Of course, as far as I’m concerned, there IS no such thing as a bad Hitchcock movie, with even the lesser examples being superior to most anything else out there.
This recently restored 1080p rendition of THE PARADINE CASE is wonderful, audio and video-wise. Even better, this is a 125-minute cut, and not the usual hour and fifty minute version that played in most theaters since 1947 (and then on television). A number of great audio extras include commentaries by Hitchcock authors Stephen Rebello and Bill Krohn, clips from the director’s 1966 interview with Francois Truffaut, plus a conversation between the director and Peter Bogdanovich. There’s also a 1949 radio adaptation featuring Valli, Jourdan, with Joseph Cotten, in the Peck role.
A “hey, why does everybody say this is so bad?” rediscovery, this edition of THE PARADINE CASE certainly at least rates an “oh, yeah, that one” spot on your Hitchcock/classic movie shelf.
THE PARADINE CASE. Black and white. Full frame ]1.33:1; 1080p High Definition]; 2.0 DTS-HD MA. Kino-Lorber Studio Classics/ABC, Inc. CAT # K21522. SRP: $29.95.
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