Showing posts with label valli. Show all posts
Showing posts with label valli. Show all posts

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Paradine Case (1947)

Primarily a failure of script, and it's not surprising that it's credited to David O. Selznick himself, who apparently re-wrote this film, Hitchcock's last with Selznick, to death. The whole film hinges on Gregory Peck's attorney falling in love with his client, an accused murderess played by Valli. But that central relationship does not work at all and the movie falls apart around it. There are a few good performances, including Anne Todd as Gregory Peck's increasingly anxious wife and Charles Laughton as a grotesque judge, seen together in the picture above. The black-and-white cinematography, done entirely in the studio, is beautiful.