Hi,
Does anyone know why Gregory Peck hated this film? In my opinion, this film is a great film. Stunning Direction by Hitchcock and I thought Gregory Peck did a great job playing his role.
Performances from Ann Todd, Joan Tetzel, and Charles Laughton were great too.
Peck was badly miscast, and the censorship of the time did not permit us to feel the lust angle. Valli acted like a wooden Indian, not a smoldering beauty with a fatal attraction. Plus pretty-boy Louis Jourdain was miscast as the valet, as his character was more of a thug in the novel.
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Actually, Many of Hitchcockian scenes were removed by Selznick and replaced some of other Hitchcock scenes with his retakes. Hitchcock's rough cut was believed to be destroyed in 1980s. So we will never know what Hitchcock wanted in this film.
I object to your saying the valet was more of a thug in the novel. He was not. And Louis Jourdan is physically very like the valet was described in the book. I've made postings in more detail about the valet elsewhere on this message board. Please read them.
shareHe thought he was too young. Hitch didn't think he was right for the part because he was a native Californian. He wanted Olivier for the role. Could be for that reason. Also, I'm a big GP fan, but I do not think it was one of his best performances. His best scenes in my mind, were the courtroom scenes, where he really comes off as arrogant and churlish (his whining to Laughton because he wasn't allowed to question Latour the way he wanted). He wasn't as convincing when he became very upset at Coburn's comments about Mrs. Paradine's questionable past. A little too overdone in my opinion.
shareProbably because it was movie nobody really wanted to be a part of. Hitch was tiring of O's constant memos and meddling and lost his energy throughout the shoot. It does not help that it ran over schedule and budget after Hitch delivered a 3 hour cut (probably because he stopped caring and knew O would re-edit anyway. Hitch never delivered three hour cuts to a studio.) Then GP had to reshoot many scenes after an overlong filming with O as the "director". This was easily Hitch's highest budget movie until NbyNW in which you knew where the money was spent. Hitch prided himself on running an tight ship with a movie and usually did not blow out budgets or schedule too poorly. (I know there are exceptions with Under Capicorn, Torn Curtain and NbyNW but he usually stayed close to budget/schedule.)
Also, Hitch did not want to cast GP and he tended to ignore actors/actresses he did not want. GP was probably used to post war directors, like Eli Kaazan, who could feed into the performer's egos.
It's very talky. Hardly anything happens and where is the customary Hitchcockian suspense? Motivations often don't make sense and Valli does not project the allure that would make us believe sensible men would lose their minds for her.
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