Hitchcock’s Courtroom Drama Boasts an All-Star Cast The beautiful Maddalena Anna Paradine is arrested and accused of poisoning and killing her much older, bedridden, and wealthy husband. The case seems clear-cut, but Mrs. Paradine’s defense attorney, Tony Keane, instantly falls under her spell and does everything he can to prove her innocence. Keane’s wife watches both the trial and her increasingly deluded husband from the sidelines. This was Alfred Hitchcock’s final collaboration with the renowned producer David O. Selznick, and he was granted an almost unlimited budget. The courtroom in the film is an exact replica of London’s Old Bailey, and Hitchcock employed multiple cameras simultaneously - several using complex crane movements - to capture the perfect shots of witnesses, judges, the accused, and lawyers within the packed chamber. It was a technique he would refine further in the more famous Rope the following year. Despite its ambitious and innovative production, the film was not a major box office success.
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