Madeleine *** (1950, Ann Todd, Norman Wooland, Ivan Desny, Leslie Banks, Elizabeth Sellars, Ivor Barnard, Edward Chapman) – Classic Movie Review 7085

Madeleine (1949) is a lesser but still intriguing effort from ace all-time great British director David Lean, who casts his then wife Ann Todd in the real-life story of Madeleine Smith who was accused of poisoning her husband in Glasgow in 1857 when he died of arsenic poisoning after she bought arsenic.

Offering a barnstorming tour-de-force, Todd is ideal in Lean’s typically well acted and handsome visually thinking person’s period romantic crime drama, given special distinction thanks to Guy Green’s black and white cinematography and John Bryan’s set designs.

But, with a disappointingly low-powered screenplay by Nicholas Phipps (screenplay and dialogue) and Stanley Haynes (screenplay), the movie is on the sluggish and thin side, never really quite catching fire – at least until the long climactic court section, which finally delivers the required emotion.

Also in the cast are Leslie Banks, Elizabeth Sellars, Ivor Barnard, Ivan Desny, Norman Wooland, Edward Chapman, Barbara Everest, André Morell, Barry Jones, Jean Cadell, John Laurie, Eugene Deckers, Amy Veness, Susan Stranks, David Horne, Patricia Raine, Irene Browne, Henry Edwards, Moyra Fraser, Kynaston Reeves, Anthony Newley, Eva Bartok, Douglas Barr, Cameron Hall, James McKechnie and Alfred Rodriguez.

Madeleine (also known as The Strange Case of Madeleine) is directed by David Lean, runs 114 minutes, is made by Cineguild and Rank, is released by General Film Distributors (UK) and Universal (US), is written by Nicholas Phipps and Stanley Haynes, is shot in black and white by Guy Green, is produced by David Lean and Stanley Haynes, is scored by William Alwyn, and is designed by John Bryan.

Lean was Todd’s third husband and she appeared in his The Passionate Friends (1949), Madeleine (1950) and The Sound Barrier (1952). She is also remembered for The Seventh Veil (1945) and The Paradine Case (1947).

Todd (1909–1993) had played Madeleine on stage and longed to play her in a film. Shortly after she married Lean on 21 May 1949, he offered to make this film with her starring as a wedding present. Lean thought it his worst film. They divorced in 1957.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7085

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