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!
Review of Madness of the Heart
