Madame Bovary **** (1949, Jennifer Jones, Van Heflin, James Mason, Louis Jourdan, Alf Kjellin) – Classic Movie Review 7347

MGM take a dip into French literature and both survive! Director Vincente Minnelli’s lavish and well-played 1949 American production finds James Mason cast as the 19th-century writer Gustave Flaubert, who is on trial for corruption for writing the supposedly salacious and indecent title novel Madame Bovary.

Then we go into the familiar famous tragic story of how the beautiful, unhappily married Emma Bovary (Jennifer Jones) romances handsome, ne’er-do-well Rodolphe Boulanger (Louis Jourdan) in an adulterous affair, takes on new lovers, runs up ruinous debts and destroys the lives of everyone around her, as Flaubert narrates the story prove he has written a moral tale.

Although there are some hesitations and uncertainties, this appealing and surprisingly satisfactory film contains some of director Minnelli’s finest work in an impeccable production. Jones is virtually perfect as the passionate Emma, Jourdan is ideal and Van Heflin is very good in the rather thankless role of the naive French provincial husband, Charles Bovary.

It was Oscar nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White (Cedric Gibbons, Jack Martin Smith, Edwin B Willis and Richard Pefferle).

Mason rejected the Jourdan role, and he was right.

Robert Ardrey’s excellent screenplay is based on the novel by Gustave Flaubert.

Swedish star Alf Kjellin, who plays Leon Dupuis, makes his Hollywood debut and is billed as Christopher Kent. There is a support cast to die for: Gene Lockhart, Gladys Cooper, Frank Allenby, John Abbott, Harry Morgan, George Zucco, Ellen Corby, Eduard Franz, Henri Letondal, Esther Somers, Frederic Tozere, Paul Cavanagh, Larry Simms, Dawn Kinney, Vernon Steele, Paul Bryar, George Davis, Gino Corrado, Edith Evanson, Teddy Infuhr, Edward Keane, Victor Kilian, Eula Morgan, Lon Poff and Constance Purdy.

Madame Bovary is directed by Vincente Minnelli, runs 114 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by Robert Ardrey, based on the novel by Gustave Flaubert, is shot in black and white by Robert H Planck, is produced by Pandro S Berman, is scored by Miklos Rozsa, and is designed by Cedric Gibbons and Jack Martin Smith.

Other versions include: Jean Renoir’s Madame Bovary (1934), Madame Bovary (1937) with Pola Negri, Claude Chabrol’s Madame Bovary (1991) with Isabelle Huppert, and Madame Bovary (2014).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7347

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