The Paradine Case

A rich blind man is poisoned in London and his wife Maddalena is arrested. Keane, the barrister taking her defence, falls in love with his client and builds both his strategy and his marriage around the feeling. Alfred Hitchcock made it as his last job for David O. Selznick, who interfered with the script and the casting, and Hitchcock said often afterwards that he was not happy with the result. Even so the courtroom is masterfully staged, with Hitchcock covering the same moment from four cameras and showing Keane's collapse by changing the point of view. Gregory Peck plays the barrister, Alida Valli the woman and Charles Laughton the judge. The subject is not the murder but a respectable man destroying himself. Who it is for: viewers working through all of Hitchcock and those who like classic courtroom drama. Who it is not for: anyone expecting suspense, since this is slow and talkative.