Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

TinsHeadline Touches You

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

calvinnme This film has a very open ending - just as in the true case upon which the film is based you don't know whether or not Madeleine killed her lover, as the jury renders a uniquely Scottish verdict of "not proved" which splits the difference between outright acquittal and conviction. Such a film would have been difficult to make in America at the time, as the U.S. production code of the period so demanded clear villains and heroes and swift and sure punishment of the villains.There's a great use of lighting and shadow in this film, effectively differentiating the dark back-alley scenes where Madeleine meets her poor lover on the sly from those well-lighted ballroom and daytime scenes where she is courted by her family-approved suitor, William Minnoch. Ann Todd gives a very guarded performance here as Madeleine, and maybe that was necessary to add mystery to what and how she was thinking about her predicament.I was particularly impressed by Ivan Desny as Madeleine's backstreet lover, Emile L'Anglier. He reminded me a great deal of Orson Welles in his physical features and even some in his acting style. Desny's performance is also subtle, but not so subtle that you can't see that his character is more in love with the idea of becoming a moneyed gentleman again than he ever could be with Madeleine herself.This is one of David Lean's early films, and there is one scene in particular that reminded me of his last - "A Passage to India". That scene is when Madeleine is being conducted to court in a carriage accompanied by a police officer with the mob getting out of control outside. It's not just the alleged crime that has the mob stirred up, its Madeleine's rank and privilege as well. There is a similar scene in "Passage to India" as Judy Davis is conducted to court to testify. In that film it's her accusations of an Indian of the crime of attempted rape combined with her status as a member of the British aristocracy that has the crowds riled up. I wonder if Lean borrowed on the ideas from this film when making his last.At any rate it's worth a look, just don't expect things to be wrapped up neatly as they almost always were in courtroom dramas in American films of the time.

writers_reign It is ironic that this movie is based on real events and the names have not been changed yet perversely - especially for the time - director Lean declines to show how the two lovers from such disparate backgrounds ever got together in the first place. Instead, we are presented with a fait accompli - they are an item end of story. This really isn't good enough more so since Lean does go out of his way to portray Mr Smith as a martinet in the Moulton Barratt mould and it's is almost impossible to believe that Madeleine would have had sufficient freedom to become acquainted with her low-born French lover. Yet because it is a true story they clearly did meet and fall in love in greatest secrecy and it is surely not asking too much to let us in on the facts. The first half is pure Washington Square with a plain but wealthy girl being seduced by a good-looking pauper intent on social climbing but then it becomes something else entirely once arsenic rears its ugly head. Credibility is strained again when the friend who shares a room in the rat-hole in which the lover lives informs Mr Smith that he is attached to the French Consul. Of course you are, Froggy, all Consul employees live in rat-holes, natch. There's even a nod to a previous Todd box-office hit when her lover - who always carries a cane - asks her to play the piano for him, stopping short of adding if you won't play for me you'll play for no one. The direction is competent but no better than ho hum and that goes for the acting as well.

whpratt1 Enjoyed this 1950 true story about a young woman named Madeleine Smith, (Ann Todd) who lived in Glasgow, Scotland in 1857 and the story begins with the Smith family looking for a rather large home. Madeleine is very excited about a room in the basement of this house and I wondered just why she preferred such a location and of course the story will reveal the reasons for this decision. William Mennoch, (Norman Wooland) was an older professional man and was interested in Madeleine and wanted to marry her, but she kept putting off any discussions or decisions in this matter of marriage. However, the father and mother approved of William becoming their son-in-law. As the story moves along, you find out that there is another man that Madeleine is very much in love with and he is French and not very well off financially. This man's name is Emile L'Anglier and he was determined to climb into Glasgow's high social class and found that Madeleine and her family would be able to help him accomplish this task. This story holds great mystery in black and white and all the actors gave great supporting roles in this true story about a strange woman.

Jem Odewahn Excellent and unjustly overlooked David Lean film starring his then-wife Ann Todd, "Madeleine" is terrific drama, and perhaps one of Lean's best-directed films. Todd is the young Glasgow beauty Madeleine Smith, brought to trial in 1857, accused of murdering her lover by lacing his cocoa with arsenic. In sensational scenes, Madeleine was allowed to walk free, proved neither guilty or innocent through a lack of evidence. Lean takes an interesting approach with his subject matter here. The casting of Ann Todd, a blonde, glacial and enigmatic presence serves to be the director's strong point, as the ambiguity of Madeleine Smith's motivations are increased.Cinematographer Guy Green worked with Lean on the two Dickens adaptations before this film, and he once again shows absolute mastery of black-and-white images in this film. There are many strikingly composed shots in this film, not least the scenes between Todd and her lover, played by Ivan Desny. Madeleine hands him his cup of cocoa, and the shot is framed so the cup is in the foreground, alerting the viewer's attention and questioning Madeleine's motives as she focuses on the drink. At once we suspect her, knowing she has bought and used arsenic, but then doubt creeps back into our mind. Why would she let the young shop clerk and her maid both witness her buying arsenic, when it would have been much more clever of the woman to procure the poison by less public means? Another striking scene has Madeleine's tryst with her lover played out in the dark of night as she removes her shoes and dances to a Scottish song playing in the distance. At once Madeleine is free of the ties that bind her in the staid Victorian England, and her joyful, seductive dancing is inter-cut with rollicking, very physical scenes at the dance. Soon Madeleine is on the ground, losing her shawl. We fade to black, and Lean has very implicitly informed us about the nature of their relations.The acting is generally very good, with the leading players adding authenticity to their roles. Norman Wooland plays the wealthy, upstanding young man who courts Todd while she is still carrying on an affair with Desny. Elizabeth Sellars is also memorable as Todd's maid.Most historians believe the woman was guilty of the crime, as she certainly was in possession of arsenic in the weeks leading up to her lover's death, but Lean chooses to direct in a detached manner, and by the film's end we are still pondering "Did she or didn't she?". Todd gives a curious half-smile to the camera in the final close-up shot. Is it a smile of a woman who has survived a terrible ordeal, or the smile of a murderer?