One of several Selznick pictures sold to ABC Television as a film "package".
The 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 $1,000-per-day fee, Selznick took over, including supervising editing and the musical score.
The music in "The Paradine Case" was written by Franz Waxman.
The original Hitchcock script for the film was written by James Bridie, and 'Ben Hecht 'contributed additional dialogue. But this script wasn't used, because the characters were changed, for example William Marsh became Andre Latour. This Hitchcock script is available at IUCAT Library.
When Alfred Hitchcock delivered the completed film to the studio, after a Hitchcock record of 92 days of filming, it ran almost three hours.
When Keane goes to the Paradine house in Cumberland, he walks over to Mrs. Paradine's piano. On the piano we see close-up of a page of music called Appassionata Op. 69 by Francesco Ceruomo. Francesco Ceruomo is an Italianized version of Frank Waxman, who wrote the background music for the film. The music shown on the piano is the actual music that is playing on the soundtrack at that point.
While Alfred Hitchcock liked the actors, he felt that Gregory Peck, Alida Valli and Louis Jourdan were unsuited to their roles. David O. Selznick asserted his power as studio head to insist that Hitchcock use them.
Alfred Hitchcock:
getting off a train at the Cumberland station carrying a cello (see also his cameo in Strangers on a Train).