Rating: 
Summary: Excellent performances all around!
Review: ... Hitchcock himself said, in his Francois Truffaut interview, that he was handed this script by the studio and forced to work with it. Work with it he did, "The Paradine Case features excellent performances by nearly all involved. The leads aside, Peck and Valli are both good, there is Charles Laughton, Ann Todd, Louis Jourdan and Ethel Barrymore, who received an Academy Award nomination. The magic of Alfred Hitchcock was also in his ability to work with even the weakest script and make a compelling film, if not a great film. In the same interview he says much the same for the script of "I Confess" with Montgomery Clift. Even the story for "Vertigo". one of his best works and my all time favorite, he admits had some real problems that he felt were never completely solved. Hitchcock was an artist and made great films, inspite of sometimes getting handed a less than desirable script or having to cast a studio player under contract. This was more often the case in his earlier studio days when he had less artistic control. I enjoy "The Paradine Case", as the actors, under the master's direction, truly practice their craft.
Rating: 
Summary: Valli Victorious
Review: Alida Valli didn't make very many pictures in the USA, but the ones she did are without exception worth seeing.
In Italy, of course, she is as important to the indigenous cinema as Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida put together. But here is the USA, she starred in a mere handful of pictures, and we remember her mainly via her connection to David Selznick, for whom she made THE THIRD MAN and THE PARADINE CASE. THE MIRACLE OF THE BELLS and WALK SOFTLY, STRANGER are also worth seeing. In THE PARADINE CASE, she is on trial for murdering her husband in a stuffy British courtroom, to which her sultry and exotic beauty is continually being counterpointed. She is a bird in a gilded cage all right, literally and figuratively. Gregory Peck falls hard for her, and it's watching how low he goes that makes this film one of Hitchcock's best. He even quarrels with his wife, the cold, perfect Ann Todd, and makes it plain to her and to everyone in their bourgeois social circle that he has fallen in love with his client, thus breaking all the rules in one fell swoop.
He begins to suspect that Valli has been framed, and he begins to suspect Louis Jourdan, Paradine's handsome manservant, of an illicit interest in his master's wife. The scenes between Peck and Jourdan are fiery and full of passion. Each of them is fighting for his life and honor. There is as well an erotic charge between the two of them. In a sense Peck is representing the colonialist who seeks authenticity by embroiling himself in the lives and bodies of a darker and more obviously sexed people, whether they be Italian or French. He gets slapped down for his efforts.
Even if you've seen THE PARADINE CASE fifty times, there's always something fresh to watch, whether it's Charles Coburn acting especially kinky, or Ann Todd from THE SEVENTH VEIL acting masochistic one more time. But most of all the movie is trying to make us see Valli as a new Garbo, who had retired from the screen and whom Selznick believed we would swallow Valli as a successor to. In my opinion, she's greater than Garbo by a country mile.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Technique Wasted On A Mediocre Story
Review: As someone here has suggested, perhaps if the audience could forget that this is a Hitchcock film, then expectations wouldn't be so high and "The Paradine Case" would be recognized as above-average. Of course, the other side of that coin is that if it wasn't a Hitchcock film, perhaps it wouldn't be remembered at all. Another reviewer loves it even with the sound turned off, just for the camera work and lighting. Well, sorry, but in my book this is still a mediocre movie. Great acting and clever production can't make a great movie out of a so-so story, and a so-so story is exactly what you have here. The dialogue may be snappy, but the plot has few, if any, surprises. Besides clever production, Hitchcock is known for suspense and unforeseen twists in his stories. "The Paradine Case" has some tension, but the end is not surprising and it's hard to generate a lot of sympathy for the characters. It's not that this is a bad film, but I found myself a bit disappointed when it was over. On its own, it's a mediocre courtroom drama, but if you're looking for a classic Hitchcock thriller, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Why, Gregory, why?
Review: For an actor of Gregory Peck's caliber this movie was just, well, blah. Not even that beautiful and enthralling voice of his could make it come to life. Throughout I kept picking up the jacket, searching out Alfred Hitchcock's name, just to make sure I hadn't mistaken it for his movie when it wasn't. There was no tension, no mystery, no thrill. But instead, as another reviewer had mentioned, it was almost outright silly. There is no way, realistically, that Peck's character would have become so smitten with his, in my opinion, not so attractive client in so short a time. Yes, I know, we are suppose to suspend some belief in these things, but c'mon. This is asking a bit much. Not even the beautiful lines on Peck's face and the way they deepen when he talks could save me from the boredom of this movie. Now, if you want a clever courtroom drama film, watch Witness for the Prosecution.
Rating:
Summary: silly melodrama, but Louis Jordan is nice to look at
Review: Frankly, I can't see what the fuss is all about. We watch Gregory Peck's character make a fool of himself for an nearly two hours over his beautiful client, Mrs. Paradine, with whom he is harmlessly infatuated. Well, it would have been a harmless infatuation if he weren't such a damn fool.. making sloppy errors that no lawyer, as good as he is supposed to be, would ever make, no matter how moony and googly eyed he was over his client. The dramatic climax of the movie left me thinking, "Was that all?". The only high points in The Paradine Case for me were a young and very good-looking Louis Jordan, and the usual Hitchcock directorial touches; one scene in particular I found odd and strangely delightful: At one point Gregory Peck is confronted by Louis Jordan's suspiciously enigmatic character. The more they protest they hate each other, the closer they move toward each other, and the tension and chemistry was so odd I felt convinced they were either about to tear into each other like wild dogs, or make out. *laugh* But really, the story is a bit too silly and melodramatic for my taste. I found Marnie to be a *much* better film [at least stylistically, and sloppy 60's psychology I can excuse more easily than melodrama], and I understand that it's generally panned, while this gets nothing but praise [from Amazon reviewers, at any rate]. Go figure.
Rating:
Summary: I agree, a gem
Review: I always regarded this movie as one of the greats before I grew up and read movie criticism. Peck's confession in court near the end of the movie always struck me as one of the finest things I ever saw on film. I came out of the theatre thinking about what I'd seen, and I think about it still. I regard it as essential.
Rating:
Summary: After all these years . . .
Review: I finally got to see this film. As a long-time Hitchcock fan, I didn't go out of my way to see it in any format. I'm so glad my first exposure to this great film was on the terrific B&W transfer to DVD! The picture is stunning, and from the very beginning, Hitch's camera moves and tells the story with angles and framing only he can create. The acting is superb, and look at the cast: Ethyl Barrymore, making the most of her small role, Charles Laughton, especially in his scene of lechery with Ann Todd, the beautiful Valli, and the almost-as-beautiful young Louis Jourdan, Gregory Peck, Charles Coburn, Leo G. Carroll (in an understated role, as usual)and, of course, Hitch himself who doesn't make his cameo appearance until more than 38 minutes into the movie. I'm so glad I purchased this DVD -- it will get a lot of use. Even with the sound turned off and not hearing the clever and snappy dialogue and Waxman score, I can enjoy the tremendous camera work and lighting. If you, like me, have been avoiding this belittled Hitchcock gem, give it a try -- you'll be surprised. Heck with the so-called critics!
Rating:
Summary: After all these years . . .
Review: I finally got to see this film. As a long-time Hitchcock fan, I didn't go out of my way to see it in any format. I'm so glad my first exposure to this great film was on the terrific B&W transfer to DVD! The picture is stunning, and from the very beginning, Hitch's camera moves and tells the story with angles and framing only he can create. The acting is superb, and look at the cast: Ethyl Barrymore, making the most of her small role, Charles Laughton, especially in his scene of lechery with Ann Todd, the beautiful Valli, and the almost-as-beautiful young Louis Jourdan, Gregory Peck, Charles Coburn, Leo G. Carroll (in an understated role, as usual)and, of course, Hitch himself who doesn't make his cameo appearance until more than 38 minutes into the movie. I'm so glad I purchased this DVD -- it will get a lot of use. Even with the sound turned off and not hearing the clever and snappy dialogue and Waxman score, I can enjoy the tremendous camera work and lighting. If you, like me, have been avoiding this belittled Hitchcock gem, give it a try -- you'll be surprised. Heck with the so-called critics!
Rating:
Summary: One of Hitchcock's best
Review: It makes no sense to me that this movie is not recognized as one of Hitchcock's best. The drama in the courtroom keeps one on the "edge" of his/her seat. The ending is breath-taking. Every lead actor and actress does an incredible job of acting, and, IMO they ,and the film were both worthy of at least an academy award nomination, if not the "Oscar."
Rating:
Summary: Seductive fun
Review: It's long been known that Hitchcock didn't get too much excitement out of making this film-- Selznick had long since outworn his welcome, but this was his screenplay, so the Master was operating with strings attached. And yet this is still a terrifically entertaining film to watch, one that goes swimming through several nasty pools of the psyche. Feel the seductive undertow in the filming and editing of the entrance into Mrs. Paradine's at the opening-- if Hitchcock isn't entranced with Alida Valli, he's faking it beautifully. And that swoony scene where Gregory Peck visits her bedroom back at the family's country estate!-- here is a seed of "Vertigo." That obsessive fetishism isn't limited to the Peck-Valli relationship, however. Consider that little conversation between Peck's barrister colleague and his daughter, who pals around with the Ann Todd character. And Charles Laughton gives a superbly wicked performance, with the especially nasty twist in that final scene with his heretofore seemingly almost senile wife. "The Paradine Case" is no rival for "Notorious" or "Marnie", cinematically or as an exploration of Hitchcock's obsessions, but the steam is still there, and it makes this underappreciated work worthy of consideration as a sort of cult classic, sitting not unproudly on the shelf with the dozen-plus masterworks from the peerless Hitch.
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