That was my great takeaway from reading the Paradine Case by Robert Hichens (1933). As I've indicated before, I've recently been reading various novels and short stories which were adapted into films by Alfred Hitchcock. In this (ahem) case, we have a book which Hitchcock did not particularly want to adapt but which his producer David O. Selznick wanted to make into a film. Hitchcock made his version of the Paradine Case just to complete his contractual obligations to Selznick so that he could finally move on in his career.
Today, the novel of the Paradine Case has been eclipsed by Hitchcock's film, even though it's never been considered a particularly good film. People seek out the film not because of the book (or good reviews of the film either) but because Hitchcock remains one of history's great film directors, so there's interest even in his failures.
I'm afraid I fall in with those who don't particularly like the film version but I was interested to learn if the book was more engaging than the film. I had only previously read a short story by Robert Hichens: "How Love Came to Professor Guildea." That's a very good short story, however, so I had some hopes for his novel.
As I indicated at the top, the Paradine Case is a very British book. It was a book that could only have been written by an Englishman (and probably only before 1950). The novel principally follows a defense lawyer (and his wife) as the lawyer defends a woman who is accused of murder. Although there is no real evidence implicating her in the crime, she had opportunity and possibly a motive. The lawyer's efforts to defend her are complicated by an attraction to her. But being a very British barrister, when I say he's attracted to her I mean it almost never comes up - it's a very Victorian view of love as something unsaid and shameful. It causes problems below the water line but seldom in the actual text of the book.
It's a very long book and it is mostly concerned with undercurrents. That Victorian culture where everyone gossips and speculates but no one speaks openly and honestly. This is where I came to think that I was reading a variation on the "idiot plot" because everyone talks modestly around their problems instead of actually facing them. It's not a very interesting read because, despite being 500 pages, it's concerned with what is unsaid moreso than what's said.
Reading it, I was perplexed as to why Selznick thought it would make a great film. He bought up the rights before the book was even published and it took 14 years before it fell into Hitchcock's hands. Selznick seemed to view Hitchcock as his "British director" rather than a thriller director, which is where Hitchcock's talents truly resided. Apparently Selznick's interferences with the production had a lot to do with why the film became a flop; Selznick was so desperate to prove he could make another Gone with the Wind hit that he second-guessed the picture into oblivion. Hitchcock was simply glad to get out from under his thumb.
Selznick's filmography is full of pictures with grand ambitions unmet, but with films such as Portrait of Jennie or Duel in the Sun I can at least imagine why Selznick thought he had another classic on his hands. But the Paradine Case? It's a courtroom drama and not a very interesting one. It's a very British story but made for American audiences. This was never going to be a huge picture.
It's amazing that the movie was so expensive, apparently due to Selznick's frequent midstream changes. Watching the film, you might wonder where all the money went. Certainly it has a great cast and the courtroom set is a very nice set. But otherwise, it's a black and white picture about people talking. It doesn't have stunts, special effects, colour photography, on-location shooting or any other interesting visuals. The most interesting the film gets is a well-done bit where the camera circles around Mrs. Paradine as her ex-lover approaches the witness stand.
The courtroom drama and the thriller can be combined into a great picture, as later films 12 Angry Men (1957) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959) proved. But most of all, the Paradine Case brings to mind Witness for the Prosecution (1957) by director Billy Wilder, which also featured a plot about a cool foreign woman who becomes a problem for the defense lawyer; it also features Charles Laughton as the lawyer (rather than the judge as in the Paradine Case). But Agatha Christie's story proved more durable than her countryman Hichens - it made for a great picture. The Paradine Case is ultimately too British to be engaging.
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