''Madonna of the Seven Moons'' is a 1945 British

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Arthur Crabtree Arthur Crabtree (29 October 1900 in Shipley, Yorkshire, England – 15 March 1975 in Worthing, Sussex, England) was a British cinematographer and film director. He directed films with comedians such as Will Hay, the Crazy Gang and Arthur A ...

for

Gainsborough Pictures Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, north London. Gainsborough Studios was active between 1924 and 1951. The com ...

and starring

Phyllis Calvert Phyllis Hannah Murray-Hill (née Bickle; 18 February 1915 – 8 October 2002), known professionally as Phyllis Calvert, was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1 ...

, Stewart Granger and

Patricia Roc Patricia Roc (born Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold; 7 June 1915 – 30 December 2003) was an English film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as ''Madonna of the Seven Moons'' (1945) and '' The Wicked Lady'' (1945), though she only ...

. The film was produced by Rubeigh James Minney, with cinematography from

Jack Cox Jack Cox may refer to: People * Jack Cox (footballer) (1877–1955), English footballer * Jack E. Cox (1896–1960), English cinematographer * Jack Cox (Texas politician) (1921–1990), Texan politician and gubernatorial candidate Other uses * Jac ...

and screenplay by

Roland Pertwee Roland Pertwee (15 May 1885 – 26 April 1963) was an English playwright, film and television screenwriter, director and actor. He was the father of ''Doctor Who'' actor Jon Pertwee and playwright and screenwriter Michael Pertwee. He was al ...

. It was one of the

Gainsborough melodramas The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures between 1943 and 1947 which conformed to a melodramatic style.Brooke, Michael. (2014)Gainsborough Melodrama Screenonline British Film Ins ...

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 Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

as the mistress of a jewel thief.

Cast

as Maddalena Labardi * Stewart Granger as Nino Barucci *

as Angela Labardi *

Peter Glenville Peter Glenville (born Peter Patrick Brabazon Browne; 28 October 19133 June 1996) was an English film and stage actor and director. Biography Born in Hampstead, London, into a theatrical family, Glenville was the son of Shaun Glenville (born J ...

as Sandro Barucci * John Stuart as Giuseppe Labardi *

Nancy Price Nancy Price, CBE (3 February 1880 – 31 March 1970), was an English actress on stage and screen, author and theatre director. Her acting career began in a repertory theatre company before progressing to the London stage, silent films, talkies a ...

as Mama Barucci *

Reginald Tate Reginald Tate (13 December 1896 – 23 August 1955) was an English actor, veteran of many roles on stage, in films and on television. He is remembered best as the first actor to play the television science-fiction character Professor Ber ...

as Doctor Charles Ackroyd *

Jean Kent Jean Kent (born Joan Mildred Field; 29 June 1921 − 30 November 2013) was an English film and television actress. Biography Born Joan Mildred Field (sometimes incorrectly cited as Summerfield) in Brixton, London in 1921, the only child of va ...

as Vittoria * Peter Murray-Hill as Jimmy Logan *

Dulcie Gray Dulcie Winifred Catherine Savage Denison, (''née'' Bailey; 20 November 1915 – 15 November 2011), known professionally as Dulcie Gray, was a British actress, mystery writer and lepidopterist. While at drama school in the late 1930s she met ...

as Nesta Logan * Alan Haines as Evelyn *

Hilda Bayley Hilda Christabel Bailey (29 June 1888 – 26 May 1971) was a British theatre and film actress. On stage from 1913, she was in both stage and film versions of ''Carnival'' in 1918 and 1921, respectively; and in the controversial crime film ''Coca ...

as Mrs. Fiske * Evelyn Darvell as Millie Fiske *

Amy Veness Amy Veness (26 February 1876 – 22 September 1960) was an English film actress. She played the role of Grandma Huggett in ''The Huggetts Trilogy'' and was sometimes credited as Amy Van Ness. Veness was born Amy Clarice Beart in Aldeburgh, Suf ...

as Tessa * Robert Speaight as Priest *

Eliot Makeham Harold Elliott Makeham (22 December 1882 – 8 February 1956) was an English film and television actor. Career Makeham was born in London, England. Between 1931 and 1956, Makeham appeared, primarily in character roles, in 115 films and in 1 ...

as Bossi * Danny Green as Scorpi *

Helen Haye Helen Haye (born Helen Hay, 28 August 1874 – 1 September 1957) was a British stage and film actress.
New York Times. 3 Septem ...

as Mother Superior Calvert playing Roc’s glamorous mother was only four months her senior in real life.

Background

The film was based on a 1931 novel by

Margery Lawrence Margery Lawrence (8 August 1889 – 13 November 1969) (pseudonym of Mrs. Arthur E. Towle) was an English romantic fiction, fantasy fiction, horror fiction and detective fiction author who specialized in ghost stories.Stefan Dziemianowicz, "Lawre ...

. Film rights were bought by

Gaumont British The Gaumont-British Picture Corporation produced and distributed films and operated a cinema chain in the United Kingdom. It was established as an offshoot of the Gaumont Film Company of France. Film production Gaumont-British was founded in 18 ...

in 1938 who wanted to turn it into a vehicle for

Renée Saint-Cyr Renée Saint-Cyr (; 16 November 1904 – 11 July 2004) was a French actress. She appeared in more than 60 films between 1933 and 1994. She was the mother of Georges Lautner, who also achieved fame in the film business, albeit as a director. ...

, 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 ''The Man in Grey'' is a 1943 British film melodrama made by Gainsborough Pictures; it is considered to be the first of a series of period costume dramas now known as the "Gainsborough melodramas". It was directed by Leslie Arliss and produce ...

'' 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.

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. 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. 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".

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

External links

*
''Madonna Of The Seven Moons''
at BFI Film & TV Database
Review of film
at ''Variety'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Madonna Of The Seven Moons 1945 films Films based on British novels 1945 drama films British black-and-white films Gainsborough Pictures films Films directed by Arthur Crabtree Melodrama films British drama films 1945 directorial debut films 1940s English-language films 1940s British films