Madeleine (Restored)

Star Review

Madeleine Smith was the defendant in the most notorious Scottish murder trial of the 19th century. The intrigues of the case – a beautiful woman, a lusty foreigner and a pinch of arsenic – made it an attractive candidate for screen adaptation and it arrived in cinemas with Ann Todd in the title role and Ivan Desny as the French lover she is accused of poisoning when a more socially advantageous suitor presents himself.

David Lean was later critical of the film and perhaps as a result, it remains his most obscure work However, it's a film ripe for rediscovery. It boasts perhaps the finest visuals that this great pictorialist ever shot, stretching the Noir shadows of the two Dickens films into a meticulously recreated past.

As ever with this director, it's brilliantly staged and perfectly paced; if it doesn't quite coalesce it's because the story is ultimately ambiguous and Lean never quite resolves the various tensions. But whatever doubts its director would later profess, this is superb film-making. It deserves rescuing from its present neglect.

James Oliver on 4th August 2008

View all 33 of James Oliver’s reviews

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Film Description

Madeleine (Ann Todd) is the eldest daughter in a respectable Victorian Glasgow family. She begins an affair with Frenchman Piere Emile L'Anglier without her father's knowledge. Meanwhile, Madeleine's father insists on her seeing various suitors. When Madeleine becomes engaged to William Minnoch, Pierre threatens to reveal their relationship. Five weeks later, Pierre is found dead, and Madeleine is arrested for his murder. Based on a true story. of a Glasgow woman accused of murdering her lover in 1857.

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Film Details

Cast

John Laurie, Ann Todd, Elizabeth Sellars, Andre Morell

Technical Details