Madeleine (1950) - film review

Madeleine Smith is the daughter of a wealthy businessman who, shortly after moving his family to Glasgow, insists that it is time for her to marry.  Madeleine agrees, but she has no interest in the beau that her father has procured for her, an aristocrat named William Minnoch.  She is in love with another man, a Frenchman named Emile L’Angelier, but his straitened financial circumstances make it unlikely that her father will agree to such a match.  When Emile threatens to confront her father unless she agrees to present him to her family as her fiancé, Madeleine calls an immediate end to their relationship and consents to marry Minnoch.   Emile is enraged and refuses to return her love letters, making Madeleine fearful that he may yet betray her to her father.  A short while later, Emile dies from arsenic poisoning.  When it is discovered that Madeleine recently bought arsenic, she is arrested for murder, and faces death by hanging if she is found guilty...

Madeleine was the least successful and remains the most underrated of David Lean’s historical dramas, even though artistically it is on a par with his other great films of this period.   Particularly impressive is the moody chiaroscuro cinematography, which lends a dark, mysterious tone to the piece, suggesting the dual personality of the heroine.  Unlike Lean’s previous period films – Great Expectations (1945) and Oliver Twist (1946) – this one was based on a true story, the celebrated cause célèbre of the suspected arsenic killer Madeleine Smith who was tried for murder in 1857.  The surprising outcome of the trial is reflected in the ambiguity of the film’s ending – which may account in part for why the film was not a great success when it was first released.

David Lean was persuaded to make this film by his then wife, the actress Ann Todd, who had previously starred in his earlier film, The Passionate Friends (1949).  Todd had a special interest in the Madeleine Smith case and had appeared in a West End stage play adaptation of her trial, The Rest is Silence.   The actress’s coldly reserved yet highly sensual persona made her a perfect choice for the part of  Madeleine and this is one of her best and most memorable film performances.

Madeleine marked the end of one important chapter in David Lean’s career, it being the last film that he made for the production company, Cineguild. Lean founded the company in 1944 with Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan, and directed six films for it, three of which are considered to be masterpieces of British cinema.

© James Travers 2008

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