Madness of the Heart

Madness of the Heart
Original British quad poster
Directed by	Charles Bennett
Produced by	Richard Wainwright
Screenplay by	Charles Bennett
Based on	Madness of the Heart by Flora Sandström
Starring	Margaret Lockwood Paul Dupuis Kathleen Byron
Music by	Allan Gray
Cinematography	Desmond Dickinson
Edited by	Helga Cranston
Production company	Two Cities Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	September 20, 1950 (1950-09-20)
Running time	75 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Madness of the Heart is a 1949 British drama film directed by Charles Bennett and starring Margaret Lockwood, Paul Dupuis and Kathleen Byron.^[1]

Plot summary

Lydia Garth meets Paul de Vandiere, a French nobleman, but their romance is plagued by Lydia's complaint of recurring spells of blurred vision. Paul leaves for France, promising to return and marry Lydia, but she loses her sight while he is gone. Given no hope of recovery, she enters a convent and quickly finds that she has no vocation for life in a nunnery. She finally marries Paul, but encounters strong opposition from Verite Faimont, a neighbor who is very fond of Paul. The latter constantly plots against Lydia and is successful in temporarily breaking up the marriage, but can a miracle of restored vision be seen?

Cast

Margaret Lockwood as Lydia Garth
Paul Dupuis as Paul de Vandiere
Kathleen Byron as Verite Faimont
Maxwell Reed as Joseph Rondolet
Thora Hird as Rosa
Raymond Lovell as Comte de Vandiere
Maurice Denham as Doctor Simon Blake
David Hutcheson as Max Ffoliott
Cathleen Nesbitt as Mother Superior
Peter Illing as Doctor Matthieu
Jack McNaughton as Attendant
Pamela Stirling as Felicite
Marie Burke as Comtesse de Vandiere
Marie Ault as Nun
Joy Harrington as Sister Agnes

Production

Charles Bennett was meant to make his directorial debut with a story about the murderous Madeleine Smith; however he was replaced in this project by David Lean and given this film instead. Bennett claimed he "didn't even read" the script "until I was on my way back across the Atlantic to direct it, and then I wanted to throw up. But I had to make it. Margaret Lockwood was my star - a very good actress. And I had a fifty-five day shooting schedule. Everything was right about it except the story which was awful."^[2]

Critical reception

In The Radio Times, David Parkinson called the film an "unpersuasive melodrama", and wrote, "this hackneyed hokum is worth sticking with for the risible showdown...kudos to the supporting cast for keeping straight faces throughout." ^[3]
Matthew Coniam wrote in the BFI Screenonline, "despite low critical standing (Margaret Lockwood's biographer Hilton Tims calls it "a throwback to the worst excesses of Gainsborough's pulp-fiction days") this is among the star's more interesting post-Gainsborough work...However ripe the plot, writer-director Charles Bennett is subtler in his effects and devices than most critics allow...a remarkable degree of suspense is achieved in the scene in which Veritée attempts to drown Lydia, with its undercurrent of subdued eroticism...Bennett had co-written many of Hitchcock's finest movies, and this film is highly reminiscent of Rebecca (US, 1940) in its settings (an imposing house near a raging coastline), and plot motifs (a commoner's marriage to a wealthy landowner is deliberately strained by a hate-filled third party)." ^[4]

References