9.05.2009

The Paradine Case (1947)

 
I'd go to church for Gregory Peck...
  Last night, I received my Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection of DVDs.
AHHHH! :D
Suffice it up to the above, that I was pretty (explitive) excited.
And who the peck wouldn't be? It has Rebecca, The Young and Innocent, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (the first Lodger, not with Laird Cregar, and this one is silent), Spellbound, The Paradine Case, Lifeboat, Sabotage, and NOTORIOUS :]
 
Last night, I watched the Paradine Case. It was pretty good, but I think one of the only reasons I liked it was because of Gregory Peck's performance. Valli, who played Mrs. Paradine, was pretty good, but Ann Todd was so annoying. The movie is about a "fascinating" woman (Valli) who is suspected of killing her blind husband. Gregory Peck plays her lawyer, who ultimately becomes infatuated with her, and Ann Todd plays the good little wife.  OH, and Louis Jourdan was in it as the misogynist aide to the blind husband, who is also suspected of having an affair with Mrs. Paradine. I loved Louis Jourdan, because I hated his character a ton at the beginning, but by one of the last scenes in the courtroom, I really sympathized with his character is some respects, though I am not a misogynist. Gregory Peck was also good, but I think Gregory Peck is 90% of the time good. Valli was also good, for this being her first film. She was discovered by David O. Selznick in Italy and brought her to America to make her a big star, though she was already well established in Italy. 
The two issues I had regarded Ann Todd and the character's motives. Ann Todd, was so simpy (her character's name was Gay and in the beginning of the movie she is annoyingly cheerful) and the way she just let Gregory Peck walk all over her really made me annoyed, and she didnt do it in an attractive way. She just was all...whiny. And I never fully understood why Gregory Peck thought Mrs. Paradine was so fascinating.
Oh, and I also got Bringing Up Baby out of my public library, and (since I have this thing about watching the special features first) there was this really cute cartoon on it. I found it on Youtube, and it's in okay-quality but I'll give the link anyway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEDoiUgLjCA 
Sorry it's not in one of those tinyurl things, I don't know how to do them.

3 comments:

  1. Ah, the noble Mr. Peck. Whenever Hollywood wanted a good and true man, willing always to sacrifice bravely in a staid, stentorian voice (he read lines like he expected them to be cast in bronze afterward), they always went with Peck.

    I always found him a bit dull. Noble but so very dull.

    But then, I have found that most females see much more in him than I do. Like you, Izzy, most would gladly consider church services. ;) -- Mykal

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  2. When you write a post, you have a button (it's green, and looks like it's got a pair of goggles on top of it, it's to the right of the button where you can change the color of the text) - just mark the word/sentence you want to make a link of, press the button and insert the link in the field there!

    Haha, I liked the "she doesn't let him walk all over her in an attractive way, neither". The Paradine Case is a Hitchcock I haven't yet seen, actually!

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  3. "The Paradine Case" is a minor Hitchcock but a very interesting one. The major fault of this film lies in the dreadful casting of Gregory Peck. I like Gregory in most of his movies and I love him as Atticus Finch but in this movie he lacks the gravitas that somebody like Laurence Olivier would have brought to the role. In spite of his gray hair he looks too young and callow. Ann Todd has to be the most unsympathetic actress of all time, bar none. Louis Jourdan is young, shrill and pretty.

    On the plus side, Valli is enigmatic and breathtakingly beautiful. Charles Laughton is superb and Ethel Barrymore even better (you can actually see pages of dialogue that aren't in the film in her haunted eyes).

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