The Paradine Case (1947)

Alida Valli: Maddalena Anna Paradine

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : You are not to destroy him - if you do, I shall hate you as I've never hated a man.

• Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : I have nothing more to say to you, Mr. Keane. I loved Andre Latour... and you murdered him. My life is finished; it is you yourself who have finished it. My only comfort is the hatred and contempt I feel for you!

• Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : You're my lawyer, not my lover!

• [first lines] 

  Lakin : Dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes, mum.

  Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : Thank you, Lakin.

• Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : I must say I'm rather surprised to see you again, Inspector. I can't imagine there can be anything else that you want from me.

  Police Inspector Ambrose : I know, Mrs. Paradine. I'm aware of what you've been through; but, I've been sent here to arrest you.

• Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : Do you like the picture? It was finished a week or two before he - before he died. I think the artist has caught the blind man's look quite wonderfully.

• Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : It won't shock you, I assume, to learn that I am a woman, what would you say, a woman who has seen a great deal of life.

• Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : When I was still at school in Naples it began. I was 16, or so I said. Actually I was younger.

  Anthony Keane, Counsel for the Defense : Tragic.

  Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : Yes, perhaps. But I didn't think so then. I ran away with a man. Istanbul, Athens, Cairo.

  Anthony Keane, Counsel for the Defense : He was much older, of course? Rich. He took advantage of your youth.

  Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : He was married, respected. I took advantage of him. Then, as suddenly as it began, it ended. He wearied of me, and I wearied of him. What difference does it make?

  Anthony Keane, Counsel for the Defense : There were - others?

  Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : Of course there were others!

• Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : I did not like his manner with me.

  Anthony Keane, Counsel for the Defense : And what was there in LaTour's manner that you disliked?

  Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : I thought it sometimes - too familiar.

  Anthony Keane, Counsel for the Defense : Could you please explain exactly what you mean by that?

  Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : He - he took liberties.

  Anthony Keane, Counsel for the Defense : Did he - try to make love to you? Please answer that. Did he try to make love to you?

  Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : Yes.

• Sir Joseph, Counsel for the Prosecution : Mrs Paradine, did you think Andre LaTour very handsome?

  Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : Of course not. He is a servant. How could I consider him in that way?

• Sir Joseph, Counsel for the Prosecution : Why did you wait until that night to tell your husband?

  Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : I was ashamed.

  Sir Joseph, Counsel for the Prosecution : Why should you be ashamed? It wasn't your fault.

  Mrs. Maddalena Anna Paradine : Of course not.

  Sir Joseph, Counsel for the Prosecution : Then why be ashamed? Was it your modesty that held you back? Remembering your past? Would you say that?

  Anthony Keane, Counsel for the Defense : My Lord, I protest against that insinuation. There's been nothing in the evidence that reflects on the witness' past.

  Sir Joseph, Counsel for the Prosecution : My lord, there was no insinuation. I merely tried to convey that a lady of her, what, to use her own words, her unattractive past, need hardly have refrained from appealing to her husband on the score of maidenly modesty.