Trivia / The Paradine Case

• Actor-Shared Background: In the script, Malcolm Keane (Anthony Keane) is an Irishman. Gregory Peck was of Irish descent.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $4,258,000. Box office, $2.2 million. Far and away the least successful film for Alfred Hitchcock after he moved to Hollywood, this was an odd case of a film going over budget because of Executive Meddling. Producer David O. Selznick kept a tight grip on production and forced Hitchcock to reshoot numerous scenes. Selznick ended up spending more money on it than he had with Gone with the Wind. It was released to tepid reviews and little public interest, and Hitchcock and Selznick bitterly parted ways.
• Completely Different Title: In Sweden the film is called "En kvinnas hemlighet", meaning "A Woman's Secret".
• Contractual Obligation Project: Gregory Peck was cast against Alfred Hitchcock's wishes, as he was under contract to David O. Selznick.
• Executive Meddling: This movie cost almost exactly the same to film as Gone with the Wind, with most of the overruns due to David O. Selznick's constant interference with Alfred Hitchcock's carefully budgeted production, and his insistence that Hitchcock do extensive re-shoots. Since Hitchcock required that he receive his contractual one thousand dollars-per-day fee, Selznick took over, including supervising editing, and the musical score.
• Missing Episode: 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 screentime 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.
• Old Shame: In later years, Gregory Peck himself seldom had a kind word for the film.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Alfred Hitchcock wanted to cast Laurence Olivier or Ronald Colman as Anthony Keane, but neither were available - Olivier was busy with his film of Hamlet, while Colman was busy with A Double Life. Joseph Cotten, Maurice Evans and James Mason were also considered.
  • Hitchcock wanted Greta Garbo for Mrs. Paradine, but she turned it down due to her retirement. Ingrid Bergman was offered the role, but she didn't want to do another movie for David O. Selznick. Hedy Lamarr was also considered.
  • Hitchcock wanted Claude Rains for Lord Thomas Horfield.

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