oscaralbert Review of Madeleine

Madeleine (1950)

The jury members here must have passed around a gallon of Scotch . . .

[7/10 · 6 May 2021]

. . . during their deliberations to snatch away a resounding defeat from the Jaws of Justice at the end of MADELEINE. The title strumpet of this story strings along a bamboozled rich dude while trysting the brains out of a sleazy foreigner behind her father's trusting back. Joy-riding Jezebel MADELEINE can lie with a face straighter than a yardstick, as she slyly poisons her hot chocolate charms. Doubtless 94% or 96% of viewers are anxious to enjoy the sight of Good triumphing over Evil, in the form of a final scene showing this horrid harlot's neck snapping after her drop from the gallows. However, as patrons rue the fact that Scotland seldom resorted to the Guillotine to enforce Common Human Decency, the drunken jury returns an incomprehensible verdict meaning "maybe not guilty, but sort of," allowing this would-be serial wanton to waltz away free as a wallaby.