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Madonna of the Seven Moons

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Wikipedia article




'Madonna of the Seven Moons' is a 1945 British drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures and starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. The film was produced by Rubeigh James Minney,[http://minney.org.uk/rjminney.htm http://minney.org.uk] with cinematography from Jack Cox and screenplay by Roland Pertwee. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas.

Plot



A buried trauma from the past holds the key to the disappearance of a respectable married woman. Maddalena has a dual personality which leads her to forsake her husband and daughter, to flee to the house of the Seven Moons in Florence as the mistress of a jewel thief.

Cast



* Phyllis Calvert as Maddalena Labardi

* Stewart Granger as Nino Barucci

* Patricia Roc as Angela Labardi

* Peter Glenville as Sandro Barucci

* John Stuart as Giuseppe Labardi

* Nancy Price as Mama Barucci

* Reginald Tate as Doctor Charles Ackroyd

* Jean Kent as Vittoria

* Peter Murray-Hill as Jimmy Logan

* Dulcie Gray as Nesta Logan

* Alan Haines as Evelyn

* Hilda Bayley as Mrs. Fiske

* Evelyn Darvell as Millie Fiske

* Amy Veness as Tessa

* Robert Speaight as Priest

* Eliot Makeham as Bossi

* Danny Green as Scorpi

* Helen Haye as Mother Superior

Calvert playing Rocs glamorous mother was only four months her senior in real life.

Background



The film was based on a 1931 novel by Margery Lawrence.

Film rights were bought by Gaumont British in 1938 who wanted to turn it into a vehicle for Rene Saint-Cyr, as part of an ambitious slate for Gainsborough in 1939. However the advent of World War II disrupted these and plans to film 'Madonna' were put on the backburner.

The project was re-activated in 1944 following the box office success of 'The Man in Grey' and 'Fanny by Gaslight'. It was the first film directed by Arthur Crabtree. He had spent many years previously working for Gainsborough as a cinematographer. Phyllis Calvert later recalled:

Arthur was a very good cinematographer, but there weren't enough directors, and so people who were scriptwriters or were behind the camera were suddenly made directors. It wasn't that Crabtree was an unsatisfactory director, just that we found ourselves very satisfactory we did it ourselves. But the fact that he had been a lighting cameraman was wonderful for us, because he knew exactly how to photograph us.Brian MacFarlane, 'An Autobiography of British Cinema', Methuen 1997 p 110


Academic Sue Harper later wrote an analysis of the film, where she attributed producer R.J. Minney as being the main creative force behind it.Madonna of the Seven Moons

Harper, SueAuthor InformationView Profile. History Today; London45.8 (Aug 1995): 47.
The story, which is supposed to be based on real case histories, begins with a rather explicit suggestion of interference or indecent assault on a devout, convent-educated young woman that causes her to develop split personalities.

'Filmink' dubbed Kent the "back up Margaret Lockwood".

Reception



The movie was very popular at the British box office, being one of the most seen films of its year.[https://books.google.com.au/books?id=xtGIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA209&lpg=PA209&dq=hungry+hill+film+box+office&source=bl&ots=MTsQXadYDw&sig=2h-5aG3Vy4tT_h1mlC4mfRi18JQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZ8b6P1YHMAhVEFqYKHcy9BF8Q6AEIMzAF#v=onepage&q&f=false Robert Murphy, 'Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48', p 207] In 1946 readers of the 'Daily Mail' voted the film their third most popular British movie from 1939 to 1945. According to 'Kinematograph Weekly' the 'biggest winners' at the box office in 1945 Britain were 'The Seventh Veil', with "runners up" being (in release order), 'Madonna of the Seven Moons', 'Old Acquaintance', 'Frenchman's Creek', 'Mrs Parkington', 'Arsenic and Old Lace', 'Meet Me in St Louis', 'A Song to Remember', 'Since You Went Away', 'Here Come the Waves', 'Tonight and Every Night', 'Hollywood Canteen', 'They Were Sisters', 'The Princess and the Pirate', 'The Adventures of Susan', 'National Velvet', 'Mrs Skefflington', 'I Live in Grosvenor Square', 'Nob Hill', 'Perfect Strangers', 'Valley of Decision', 'Conflict' and 'Duffy's Tavern'. British "runners up" were 'They Were Sisters', 'I Live in Grosvenor Square', 'Perfect Strangers', 'Madonna of the Seven Moons', 'Waterloo Road', 'Blithe Spirit', 'The Way to the Stars', 'I'll Be Your Sweetheart', 'Dead of Night', 'Waltz Time' and 'Henry V'.

It was the only British film among the ten most popular films of 1946 in Australia.

Stewart Granger later called the film "terrible".Brian MacFarlane, 'An Autobiography of British Cinema', Methuen 1997 p 230

US release

British films had not traditionally performed well in the US but screenings to US soldiers in Britain led J Arthur Rank to feel that 'Madonna of the Seven Moons' would do well there.

The movie was the first of a series of Rank films distributed in the US by Universal.

References






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