The Paradine Case

When Alfred Hitchcock delivered the completed movie to the studio, after a Hitchcock record of ninety-two days of filming, it ran almost three hours. This rough cut was initially trimmed to two hours and twelve minutes, which was the version screened for the Academy of Arts & Sciences. In this version, Ethel Barrymore can be seen as the half-crazed wife of Lord Horfield, which explains the Oscar nomination for her performance (there was apparently a brilliant museum scene where Lady Horfield requests Anthony Keane to save Mrs. Paradine, and another scene where Lady Horfield tries to hide her coughing from her husband). Producer David O. Selznick subsequently cut the film to two hours and five minutes, and then to its present length of one hour and fifty-four minutes, in which Barrymore's screen time totals about three minutes. In 1980, a flood reputedly destroyed the original, uncut version, making the restoration of the cut scenes unlikely, although it has been reported that some of these cut scenes reside at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.

When Keane travels to the Paradine country home, his train is seen entering the village from the left, framed by an overhanging tree branch. When Keane departs the village, a train is shown beneath the same branch departing from the right. It's the same shot, flipped for reuse.

In opening credits scroll below Ethel Barrymore: "and two new / Selznick Stars / Louis Jourdan / and / Valli". Alida Valli's name is in script form, and Jourdan had been playing leading roles in French films for several years before making "The Paradine Case".

Originally released at 132 minutes.

Featured in American Masters: Hitchcock, Selznick and the End of Hollywood (1998)