Madeleine (1950) on Netflix
1855, Glasgow. Madeleine Smith, from a wealthy family, puts off the suitor her father favors while secretly seeing Émile L'Angelier. She takes a basement room near the servants' entrance.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.9/102,448 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Trailer
Plot summary
The Smith family moves into a house in Blythswood Square, Glasgow, in 1855. Their eldest daughter, Madeleine, asks for the basement bedroom, which stands beside the servants' entrance and lets her meet Émile L'Angelier without the family knowing. Her father, James, brings a wealthy gentleman, William Minnoch, to dinner, and Madeleine plays and sings for him. James wants her to accept William as a husband, though he knows nothing of Émile, whom Madeleine slips out to see that same night. Émile presses her to tell her father about him so they can marry, but Madeleine is frightened of the man who rules the household and will not do it.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Madeleine (1950)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- David Lean made Madeleine mainly as a wedding present to his then-wife Ann Todd, who had already played the role on stage. He was never happy with the film and called it his least favorite feature-length movie.
- The film is based on the true case of Madeleine Smith, a young Glasgow woman from a wealthy family tried in 1857 for the murder of her lover Émile L'Angelier. The trial was labeled "the trial of the century".
- Yves Montand and Gerard Philipe were considered for Émile L'Angelier but both were unavailable, so the unknown Ivan Desny won his first lead role, after dubbing Trevor Howard's French dialogue in Lean's Brief Encounter.
- Charles Bennett wrote a version of the story intending to direct it himself, but his script went unused because David Lean wanted to make a version starring his wife, Ann Todd.
