Madness of the Heart (1949)

Copyright 31 August 1950 (in notice: 1949) by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. A Two Cities Films, London, production, released in the U.S. by Universal-International, August 1950. New York opening at the Park Avenue: 11 October 1950. U.K. release through General Film Distributors: 29 August 1949. Australian release through Gaumont- British-Dominions/20th Century-Fox: 14 July 1950. 105 minutes. Cut to around 90 minutes in Australia and the U.S.A. SYNOPSIS: Blind girl threatened by husband's best friend. VIEWER'S GUIDE: Not suitable for young children. NOTES: Directorial debut (the only other film I have for him as a director is "No Escape" in 1953) of screenwriter Charles Bennett. His films include Blackmail, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, Secret Agent, Sabotage, Foreign Correspondent, etc.COMMENT: How wonderful to see a Gothic thriller produced with such class and style! Of course we shouldn't be too surprised, considering Bennett's credentials on some of our favorite Hitchcocks. My only complaint is that in the full-length British version, the plot does take a long time to get going. Once that charismatic heavy, Kathleen Byron, comes on the screen, however, the thrills mount to a suspenseful climax.Margaret Lockwood turns in an attractive study of the imperiled heroine, and there is fine support work by Maxwell Reed as a sinister servant and Raymond Lovell as a Spiral Staircase count.Although the basic plot is a familiar one (compare "Night Without Stars"), it is given class "A" treatment here with film noirish photography, aristocratic sets, hordes of extras and real locations.Best of all, Bennett's direction is not only spine-tingling, but confident and assured. OTHER VIEWS: With its echoes of Rebecca, Kidnapped and Notorious, not to mention The Spiral Staircase and other Gothic thrillers, Madness of the Heart is guaranteed to generate suspense. When fine acting and skillful direction are added to the plot, the result is almost certainly edge-of-the-seat excitement.

Take a bit of 'Black Narcissus' and throw in a bit of 'Rebecca' and you have 'Madness Of The Heart' from 1949. Lydia Garth meets a man, falls in love, goes blind, enters a convent, comes out again, meets previous man, gets married, goes to France, gets persecuted. Nothing surprising which is a shame as it had a lot of potential. The good cast act gamely but the pedestrian script is impossible to enliven. What it does have is Kathleen Byron playing Verite Faimont, channeling her Sister Ruth from 'Black Narcissus', as a jealous woman who covets Lydia Garth's husband. In an interview in 1990 Kathleen Byron said she was by the time of this film fed up playing these types of roles but no one did it better. She scorches the screen whenever she is on. In the horse riding scene she looks full of rage, frustration and sexiness at the same time. It took by breath away. The music by Allan Gray is good and the ubiquitous Sam Kydd turns up in a blink-and-you'll-miss-him-role, otherwise it's a conventional soap opera, apart from the kick that Kathleen Byron gives to it.

This overwrought melodrama may have held the attention of undiscriminating audiences back in 1949, but is difficult to watch now without chuckling. Former superstar Margaret Lockwood is clearly slumming it with this turkey, and she knows it. Her performance never takes off, and although she was only 33 at the time of filming, she looks a good 15 years older. Her teeth, particularly in closeup, look crooked and ill cared for. In one scene she introduces her maid, saying "Rosa has looked after me since I was a little girl"... rather remarkable, seeing as Rosa is played by Thora Hird, in reality just five years older than Miss Lockwood, and looking slightly younger in this film - even without makeup! Shades of Patricia Roc playing Phyllis Calvert's daughter in Madonna of the Seven Moons! Maxwell Reed is, as usual, atrocious - however he is aided by a dubbed French accent. The best performance comes from Kathleen Byron - the undisputed queen of cinematic malevolence. As awful as I found this film, it did bring me one special satisfaction: as a child I saw a film on TV, in which the villainess attempts to kill the formerly-blind heroine by opening a door from which there is a sheer drop. That scary moment has remained vivid in my memory for fifty years, but I had no idea from which movie the scene came ... until I watched Madness of the Heart today!

No one is pretending that a movie made in 1949 will be the latest. However this feeble story about a woman who goes temporarily blind, and who is trying to be killed off by her evil in-laws, stretched credibility to the very end. Students of French movie accents may find it interesting, as will those studying the geography of the French coast, and airport terminal design in the 1950's.