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Madeleine is a 1950 film directed by David Lean, based on a true story about Madeleine Smith, a young Glasgow woman from a wealthy family who was tried in 1857 for the murder of her lover, Emile L'Angelier. The trial was much publicized in the newspapers of the day and was labelled "the trial of the century." Lean's adaptation of the story stars his then wife, Ann Todd with Ivan Desny as her French lover. Norman Wooland played the respectable suitor, and Leslie Banks the authoritarian father, who are both unaware of Madeleine's secret life. Lean made the film primarily as a "wedding... MORE

Madeleine is a 1950 film directed by David Lean, based on a true story about Madeleine Smith, a young Glasgow woman from a wealthy family who was tried in 1857 for the murder of her lover, Emile L'Angelier. The trial was much publicized in the newspapers of the day and was labelled "the trial of the century." Lean's adaptation of the story stars his then wife, Ann Todd with Ivan Desny as her French lover. Norman Wooland played the respectable suitor, and Leslie Banks the authoritarian father, who are both unaware of Madeleine's secret life. Lean made the film primarily as a "wedding present" to then-wife Ann Todd, who had previously played the role on-stage. He was never satisfied with the film and cited it as his least-favourite feature-length movie. The film dramatises events leading up to the 1857 trial of an otherwise respectable young woman, Madeleine Smith, (Ann Todd), for the murder of her draper's assistant lover, Emile L'Angelier (Ivan Desny). The trial produced the uniquely Scottish verdict of "not proven", which left Madeleine a free woman. The film begins with the purchase of a house in Glasgow by a wealthy middle class Victorian family. Their eldest daughter, LESS