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.
| Tagline | Here are the virile, violent facts that caused the most famous jury verdict in history... |
| Release Date: | Feb 16, 1950 |
| Genres: | Drama, Crime, Mystery |
| Production Company: | Cineguild, J. Arthur Rank Organisation |
| Production Countries: | United Kingdom |
| Casts: | Ann Todd, Norman Wooland, Ivan Desny, Leslie Banks, Elizabeth Sellars, André Morell, Barbara Everest, Susan Stranks, Patricia Raine, Eugene Deckers, Barry Jones |
| Status: | Released |
| Budget: | $0 |
| Revenue: | 0 |
Ann Todd becomes better as she plays herself into the character of a rather devious and unscrupulous girl in this adaptation of a famous Glasgow murder (or, perhaps that should be murrrrdurrrr) tale from 1857. "Madeleine" is the daughter in a well-to-do family whose father (a seriously authoritarian Leslie Banks) can't quite figure out why she won't marry a suitable young man - unawares that she has been having a fling with an equally unscrupulous Frenchman who has his sights set on her family's wealth. His attempts at blackmail terminally backfire and before long she is on trial for his killing. The subsequent courtroom drama features strong performances from Barry Jones and André Morell as the barristers and this helps lift this rather slow-moving drama along to quite a gripping denouement (an unique peculiarity of the Scottish legal system). Maybe not David Lean's best or most notable work, but you can see his hallmark style all over this. (PS: keep an ear out for a wonderfully presbyterian performance from John Laurie - you will recognise his voice long before he comes into shot).
