The Paradine Case (1947)

“You always forget that punishment is part of the scheme.”

Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Paradine Case begins with a beautiful woman, Maddalena Paradine (Alida Valli) calmly playing the piano right before she is arrested for the murder of her husband. At one point, she pauses and looks up at the portrait of her husband hanging on the wall next to the piano, and a shadow of a different emotion passes across her face. Is it sadness? Grief? It’s impossible to tell. That single shot of Valli’s perfectly sculptured face registers something…but what? And that scene is just one example of this perfectly constructed Hitchcock film.

The Paradine Case revolves around the question of whether or not Mrs. Paradine murdered her elderly, blind wealthy husband. Highly skilled barrister Edward Keane (Gregory Peck) is employed to defend her, and in spite of the fact he’s happily married to Gay (Ann Todd), in the course of the pre-trial consultations, Keane falls under the spell of Mrs. Paradine–the fascinating, enigmatic, elusive dark beauty. She frankly admits that she had a shady past, and makes no apologies for it. She also admits that her life improved immeasurably when she married the elderly and extremely wealthy Colonel Paradine. There is no real sense of what sort of person the Colonel was, or what their marriage was like, but Keane immediately begins building a case that Mrs. Paradine was the devoted, lovely wife who sacrificed herself to her husband’s many needs.

The film’s pre-trial build-up is perfect. Two separate domestic scenes illustrate the decline of Keane’s marriage as his fascination with Mrs. Paradine deepens. In the first domestic scene, Keane comes home late at night, and he’s met by his lovely devoted wife who fusses him into bed with wifely attentions. But their relationship deteriorates rapidly once he takes the case, and the next domestic scene between the Keanes is evidence of the toll the case has taken on their marriage. The film touches on the idea of class. Keane moves in affluent society, but there are hints that his life has not always been like this. Mrs. Paradine is a newcomer to the upper classes, and this fact rears its head at several points during the film–especially when she’s questioned regarding her husband’s loyal valet Andre (Louis Jourdan).

One of Keane’s greatest flaws, apparently, is to get too emotional during a trial. This is his Achilles’ Heel, and perhaps the explanation for this can be found in the fact that Keane is essentially an idealist. The sagacious Paradine family solicitor Simon Flaquer (Charles Coburn) hopes that Keane won’t have to argue his case in front of the cantankerous but formidable Judge Horfield (Charles Laughton)–a man who dominates his timid wife (Ethel Barrymore) with nasty comments about the female sex and who casts his lascivious eyes on Keane’s sadly neglected and under appreciated wife. The drama between these strong characters–Mrs. Paradine, Edward and Gay Keane, Judge Horfield, and Simon Flaquer (splendid performances by all) plays out against the question of Mrs. Paradine’s guilt. If she did indeed murder her elderly frail husband, then she is capable of a monstrous act, and as Keane becomes increasingly involved in the case, he leaves his good sense and judgment behind while struggling in the vortex of his passion.