Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

zkonedog The courtroom can often be a place of high drama in cinema (think: A Few Good Men). In "The Paradine Case", however, there just isn't enough compelling material to make its "verdict" a success.For a basic plot summary, this movie focuses on Mrs. Paradine (Alida Valli), an English women accused of murdering her husband. When lawyer Anthony Keane (Gregory Peck) is called onto the case and falls for the widow in an instant, however, his ethical responsibilities to the bench are pulled to the fraying point.The number one problem with this movie is that the plot is terribly predictable. I won't give away any details here, but there are enough hints and innuendos given throughout the film that the verdict that should have been "shocking" at the film's climax is rendered relatively inert. Perhaps such film-making tactics were commonplace in the 1940s and easier for audiences to digest, but more seasoned film fans will find it annoying that nothing in this movie is ever questioned or rendered remotely suspenseful.The other problem with "Paradine" is the whole "love at first sight" angle between Peck's character and the lead female role. This is a flimsy plot contrivance that should have been delved into more deeply instead of just accepted in the blink of an eye. While watching, I wanted to know more about that main relationship, but instead we are just supposed to buy-in from the get-go and, again, not question a thing.About the only redeeming value in this film for me was that the ethical struggles are indeed endearing and important to the law profession. Those are the issues that the film should have focused on instead of spending so much time on a romance angle that viewers can see will not be surprising in the least come conclusion time.Thus, this is one of Hitch's poorer efforts in my book. It may be slightly (2.5 stars would be my perfect rating) better than his Cold War stinkers, but lags far behind his thoughtful, suspenseful fare. Skip this one if you are not a Hitch nut.

herrick416 Equally unlike a 'Rebecca' as it is to Hitchcock's later movies like 'Psycho' and 'The Birds' yet The Paradine Case remains one of my favorite little gems, but to put into words why this is true won't be easy. Nothing about this haunting tale is easy to describe with the standard adjectives of film critique. That's precisely why it stands out, in my mind anyway, as unique. Pure and simply unique. It's an intense crime drama, with some mystery and some romance and not a dull moment or a lull in a compulsion to see it through til the end. I love it for its ambiguity and darkness and haunting plot. There is no forced twist or anything that doesn't ring true while the characters who remain mysterious do not need to be made crystal clear in order for the story to end with satisfactory resolution. The strangest one is the man-servant and Louis Jordan':S debut film. Excruciatingly handsome, we never really get to know what makes Andre Latour tick. But we know he's a dark and fiercely loyal man. And then there's Valli. If you love courtrooms and Gregory Peck and honor and honesty, you'll appreciate what this movie is about. Otherwise you might enjoy it still for its originality and beauty.

Manhattan William I've always been a Hitchcock fan but have put off watching this for several years as I had read the plot summary and some reviews and was wary of being disappointed. Finally giving into my worries, I confirm here and now that I was not wrong in my belief that I would be left sorry for the experience. It's a dour mess. The story makes no sense whatsoever. NONE of the characters are in the least sympathetic. The conflicts of interest between judge and jury and legal council are unbelievable. It's sad that a film starring Peck and Laughton and Coburn and Barrymore could result in something SO unsatisfying. I had to watch THE BIRDS immediately afterward to regain my sense of Hitchcock equilibrium.

tieman64 "The Paradine Case" is a dull, stiff melodrama by Alfred Hitchcock. Based on a novel by Robert Hichens, the film was produced by David O. Selznick, a man who delighted in churning out overproduced prestige pictures. Fresh off the failure of "Duel in the Sun", Selznick exerted an unusual amount of control on "The Paradine Case", his fingers strangling all life out of the picture. He even credited himself with writing the film's script. Hitchcock hated the film.Part murder mystery, part legal thriller, the film stars a wooden Gregory Pack as Anthony Keane, a defence attorney tasked with defending Anna Paradine, a woman accused of poisoning her blind husband. Hitchcock wanted Laurence Olivier for Peck's role, but Selznick disagreed. Selznick wanted Greta Garbo for Paradine's role – she was to come out of retirement – but those plans collapsed.The film's mostly a stagey melodrama, but several scenes allow Hitchcock to flex his muscles. A last act courtroom is imaginatively prowled by The Master's camera, and a sequence in a bedroom recalls Lila Crane's exploration of Norman Bates' bedroom in "Psycho". There are some loose connections to Hitch's other films – Peck's infatuated with and idealises women, as Hitchcock's male leads oft do, and a suicide is brushed aside like a certain Miss Lonelyheart in "Rear Window" – but this is otherwise a routine picture.Most of Hitchcock's films have weird, psycho-sexual stuff going on in between frames. Not so much "The Paradine Case", though it does have a defence attorney whose entire defence functions as a kind of projection of his own feelings toward his client. Peck essentially wills Anna into innocence in order to justify his own feelings toward her, jealously removes prospective lovers from her reach so that he may woo her himself. Even when Anna eventually admits to murder, we're never sure if she's telling the truth or is merely confessing so as to scar her attorney; we can't take her admission at face value. And like the characters in Hitchcock's "Notorious", selfish behaviour is constantly being rationalised as being selfless, characters helping others only in so far it benefits them, resulting in all kinds of weird power relationships.In typical Selznick fashion, the film looks garish, overly ornate and tackily expensive. This is a vulgar looking picture, in contrast to the sleek, pop-modernism/pop-Expressionism of Hitchcock's best films.6/10 - For Hitchcock completists only.