Madeleine (1950)

Madeleine: Directed by David Lean. With Ann Todd, Norman Wooland, Ivan Desny, Leslie Banks. The middle-class family of a young woman cannot understand why she delays in marrying a respectable young man. They know nothing about her long-standing affair with a Frenchman.

“It should come as no surprise that the trial of MADELEINE may well have been termed u0026quot;the trial of the centuryu0026quot; in 1857u0026#39;s Scotland. And from this true story, David Lean has made a period romance starring ANN TODD as the scheming woman from a wealthy background who feels compelled to hide her love affair with a commoner from her disapproving father.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMadeleine defies the conventions of her stiff upper-class household and, after receiving a proper gentleman caller with her family, retreats to her private room where she has an assignation with a lover who is not a man of means. The shadowy interiors suggest the menace to come, as her father urges her to take a suitable suitor in marriage as soon as possible.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat hurts the story is the familiarity of it all–a woman of substance wanting to break out of the social boundaries of convention. And unfortunately, there is nothing novel or different about this version of such a tale to make it of more than routine interest, despite the David Lean touch. What it really needed was Alfred Hitchcocku0026#39;s guiding hand.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll of the technical ingredients are fine but the script is ultimately a disappointment and tends to be dull in spots. Furthermore, Ann Toddu0026#39;s Madeleine is not a very arresting character. This has to be considered one of David Leanu0026#39;s less effective films. The story is as emotionally cold as Madeleine herself and her demure behavior with her father seems more like a pose than anything else, one that he should easily be able to see through. Her arrest for murder in the poisoning of her lover is handled with too many frigid close-ups of Toddu0026#39;s face and no real explanation of what happened.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s certainly not a u0026quot;must seeu0026quot; film by the renowned directed Lean.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBest performance in the entire film: ANDRE MORELL as the defense counselor who gives the most stirring and satisfying speech in the courtroom as to why Madeleine should be found innocent of the circumstantial evidence.”