Alfred Hitchcock‘s The Paradine Case (’47) is a straightforward portrait of obsession and downfall. It’s a carefully measured, decorous, stiff-necked drama (handsomely produced by David O. Selznick) about a married, middle-aged attorney (a too-young Gregory Peck) who all but destroys himself when he falls in love with a femme fatale client (Alida Valli) accused of murdering her husband. A foolish love affair is one thing, but Peck’s exists entirely in his head as Valli isn’t the least bit interested and in fact is in love with Louis Jordan, whom she was seeing before her husband’s death. Not much of an entry point for a typical moviegoer, and not a lot to savor. It’s essentially a romantic triangle piece (Peck, Valli, Jordan) but you can’t identify or even sympathize with Peck as Valli is playing an absolute monster. But I’ve always respected the tragic scheme of it. By the second-to-last scene Peck’s humiliation is complete and absolute. I wouldn’t mind seeing this again, but it hit me this morning that there’s no Bluray and no high-def streaming. There are DVD versions available but for some reason somebody in the copyright food chain said no when a high-def version was considered.