Madeleine (1950)

Directed by David Lean. Starring Ann Todd, Ivan Desny, Norman Wooland, Leslie Banks, Barry Jones, André Morell, Edward Chapman, Elizabeth Sellards, Ivor Barnard, Jean Cadell, Susan Stranks, Eugene Deckers.

The true story of the mid-19th century murder trial of Madeleine Smith (Todd), accused of poisoning her shabby French lover (Desny) with arsenic. Before arriving at those crucial events, director Lean treats us to a dutifully lingering study of his leading lady (and then-current wife); it’s unabashedly high-minded William Wyler territory, tasteful and stiffly romantic, but never settles quite right in Lean’s hands despite the Victorian trappings that he so effortlessly brought to life in his Dickens adaptations. As for the courtroom scenes in the second half, they’re not gripping, per se, but they do have the overdramatic flair of a potboiler, and Todd’s inscrutable expression at the very end is the first true pleasure she offers after two hours of strained significance. Considered by the director himself to be his worst film; not quite, but it’s still lesser Lean, and required viewing only for completists or patrons who like wandering into theaters halfway through a picture.

57/100