The Paradine Case

Alfred Hitchcock


Tit. It.: “Il Caso Paradine”; Scen.: David O. Selznick; Adattamento: Alma Reville, Dal Romanzo Omonimo Di Robert Hichens; F.: Lee Garmes; M.: Hal C. Kern, John Faure; Scgf.: Thomas Morahan; Prod. Designer: J. Mcmillian Johnson; Cost.: Travis Banton; Mu.: Franz Waxman; Int.: Gregory Peck (Anthony Keane), Ann Todd (Gay Keane), Charles Laughton (Giudice Horfield), Alida Valli (Maddalena Anna Paradine), Ethel Barrymore (Sophie Horfield), Charles Coburn (Sir Simon Flaquer), Louis Jourdan (André Latour), Joan Tetzel (Judi Flaquer); Prod.: David O. Selznick Per Selznick International


info_outline
T. it.: Italian title. T. int.: International title. T. alt.: Alternative title. Sog.: Story. Scen.: Screenplay. F.: Cinematography. M.: Editing. Scgf.: Set Design. Mus.: Music. Int.: Cast. Prod.: Production Company. L.: Length. D.: Running Time. f/s: Frames per second. Bn.: Black e White. Col.: Color. Da: Print source

Film Notes

The Paradine Case was the last Hitchcock-Selznick collaboration, and from Leonard Leff’s description in Hitchcock and Selznick, it was the most troubled. After a long development process, Selznick wrote the shooting draft himself. What had been shot, to judge from the script, which is the size of a phone book, was two films, Hitchcock’s and Selznick’s. Not surprisingly, Hitchcock’s rough-cut ran three hours – after that it was up to the producer to create a release version. He preserved Hitchcock’s rough-cut, which was destroyed by a flood in the Selznick vaults in the 80s. He also preserved a fine grain – unfortunately without sound – of the next-to-last cut before he made his own final editing decisions. Besides a couple of missing scenes, the fine grain allows us to witness Selznick at work, and remarkably, every final decision that can be inferred from the comparison was bad.

Bill Krohn, in “Cinegrafie”, 17, 2004

Video Transfert Of Extracts From The Silent “Next-To-Last” Cut To Illustrate The Final Decisions Producer Selznick Made.