Madeleine

Madeleine (1950)

Here are the virile, violent facts that caused the most famous jury verdict in history...

Madeleine's middle-class family cannot understand why she puts off marrying a respectable young man, as they know nothing about her long-term affair with a Frenchman.

Date of release
1950-02-16
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (39)
Runtime
1h 55m
Genres
Drama, Crime, Mystery
Director
David Lean

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Pinewood Studios and Edinburgh

Madeleine is a 1950 British period film noir directed by David Lean and starring Ann Todd, Norman Wooland, Ivan Desny and Leslie Banks. It is based on the true story of Madeleine Smith (Todd), a young Glasgow woman from a wealthy family who was tried in 1857 for the murder of her lover, Émile L'Angelier (Desny). The trial was much publicised in the newspapers of the day and labelled "the trial of the century".

Production

Ann Todd had appeared in a stage version of the story, The Rest is Silence by Harold Purcell, in 1944. The Rank Organization bought the screen rights as a possible vehicle for Vivien Leigh. The play was not credited for the film of Madeleine because the final script followed the original facts enough to constitute an original screenplay.

Ann Todd requested her husband David Lean direct the film version. Eric Ambler worked on the script originally but fell ill and withdrew, replaced by Nicholas Phipps. Lean worked on the script throughout the shoot, which began in April 1949.

Yves Montand and Gerard Philipe were considered for the role of Émile, but both were unavailable. An unknown Ivan Desny was cast in his first lead role. He had previously done the French-language dubbing for Trevor Howard in Lean's Brief Encounter (1945).

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