Madeleine

1950

1h 41m

Drama

List

86%

Tomatometer

7 Reviews

71%

Audience Score

100+ Ratings

Madeleine Smith (Ann Todd), the beautiful eldest daughter of a wealthy Glasgow family, begins an illicit love affair with the charming Emile (Ivan Desny), a working-class Frenchman. When she begins to suspect that Emile loves her only for her money and social status, Madeleine agrees to marry the man her iron-fisted father (Leslie Banks) approves of, wealthy and respectable William Minnoch (Norman Wooland). When Emile dies suddenly, suspicion points to Madeleine as his murderer.

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Rent Madeleine on Prime Video, or buy it on Prime Video.

Time Out

One of three films Lean made virtually as star vehicles for his wife Ann Todd. Here she manages to extend the range of her semi-hysterical screen personality into a flimsily forceful character who pits her amoral deviousness against... rigid hypocrisy.

Nov 6, 2007

Full Review

Roger Moore

Movie Nation

One never loses the feeling that subtexts and psychology -- personal and Scottish -- aside, this is lesser Lean.

Rated: 2.5/4

Aug 17, 2023

Full Review

MFB Critics

Monthly Film Bulletin

The film is beautifully, elegantly made, but Lean has committed a crime far worse than technical blunders: that of taking a live story and robbing it of all feeling and humanity, so that what is served up on the screen is cold, remote and intolerable.

Jan 23, 2018

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

This compelling character study is one of the three films David Lean made with his then wife Ann Todd.

Rated: B+

Apr 19, 2011

Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Murder underneath patrician faades

Mar 13, 2010

Full Review

TV Guide

The script and direction are handled with amazing restraint, cleverly and carefully constructed, heightened by Todd's inherently enigmatic image.

Rated: 3.5/4

Nov 6, 2007

Full Review

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Audience Member

The beginning started off very well with an interesting secret romance. The court room drama second half got boring fast though. I did like the ending though. For the most part I think the film was true to the actual bizarre true crime case story. It is based off a possible murder that happened in Scotland in the mid 1800s. The acting was well done. I think it could've been more interestingly told, but its worth a watch for the story alone if you have nothing better to do.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Exceptional cinematography, languid pace and objective POV, as Lean is known for. We have to make up our minds as to the lady's guilt or innocence. Interesting period piece that rakes up the problems of class, country, the power of men over women at the time. The errant Frenchman who refuses to marry Miss Smith because he can't support her, then forces himself upon her after she decides to marry someone else, is disturbing.. It is clear the Frenchman only sought a connection with her due to her father's wealth. Women in the mid 19th century used acid and arsenic as cometics. It's also clear that Smith wanted to rid herself of her French lover. Did she seek to kill him? Would L'Angelier kill himself? Was there any other manner in which he could've been poisoned by arsenic? There is a reasonable doubt in all these proceedings and of course Lean uses poetic license to fill in the blanks no one knows. Fascinating portrait showing the beginnings of Lean's later style.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

David Lean's melodramatic showcase for his wife, Ann Todd, was never considered one of his better films but has aged quite nicely.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

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Audience Member

One of the few movies given 100 rating, directed by David lean

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Ann Todd wasn't the best actress in the world, but she was married to director David Lean at this point in time and he gifted her with the starring role in this film. It doesn't come even close to his best work, but it is still a reasonably well told tale about a scandal to hit Scotland in the mid-19th century.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Based on the true 19th century story of Madeleine Smith who was tried for the murder of her lover, this film has a nice ambiguity about it which was reflected in the real verdict. None of the characters are shown as entirely good or bad, and the different conentions under which people were expected to lie at that time are shown well. Not among Daid Lean's best films, but still not bad.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

Full Review

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David Lean

Director

Ann Todd

Madeleine Smith

Norman Wooland

William Minnoch

Ivan Desny

Emile L'Anglier

Leslie Banks

James Smith

Edward Chapman

Dr. Thompson

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Synopsis

Madeleine Smith (Ann Todd), the beautiful eldest daughter of a wealthy Glasgow family, begins an illicit love affair with the charming Emile (Ivan Desny), a working-class Frenchman. When she begins to suspect that Emile loves her only for her money and social status, Madeleine agrees to marry the man her iron-fisted father (Leslie Banks) approves of, wealthy and respectable William Minnoch (Norman Wooland). When Emile dies suddenly, suspicion points to Madeleine as his murderer.

Director: David Lean
Production Co: Cineguild
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): May 22, 2017
Runtime: 1h 41m

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