Obsession is a recurring theme for Alfred Hitchcock. In many of his films, ordinary people often get tangled up in crime or some sort of horrific incident because of something they pursue that’s just out of their grasp. In other films, people are victim to others’ desires, caught in a web of someone else’s making. Vertigo, Rear Window, Marnie, Psycho, Shadow of a Doubt, and Frenzy are the classic examples of Hitchcock’s obsession movies. A little known film called The Paradine Case is another variation on the theme of obsession, and it is notable for depicting both sides of obsession. Released in 1947, The Paradine Case stars Gregory Peck in his second film with Hitchcock (the first being 1945’s Spellbound), Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Ethel Barrymore, and the Hollywood debuts of international actors Alida Valli and Louis Jourdan. The film was Hitchcock’s last under his contract with David O. Selznick, a contentious yet fruitful pairing. Despite one especially inventive sequence,