Madonna of the Seven Moons **** (1945, Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger, Patricia Roc, Peter Glenville, John Stuart, Jean Kent, Dulcie Gray) – Classic Movie Review 6,965

Can we have your attention, please, for ‘The year’s strangest, most absorbing drama!’, the 1945 Gainsborough melodrama film Madonna of the Seven Moons, starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc.

Director Arthur Crabtree’s engagingly florid 1944 British movie of sin and redemption is an occasionally daft but highly popular Gainsborough Pictures studios romantic adventure with an engaging star turn from Phyllis Calvert as Maddalena, a quiet, glamorous Italian ragazza developing a dual personality as a glamorous gypsy because of the disturbed, mixed-up emotions caused by her rape as a teenage schoolgirl by a traveller while walking in the woods.

Later, in the 1940s, though she is married to Giuseppe (John Stuart), she whizzes off to Florence to be with gypsy gem robber Nino (Stewart Granger), but her daughter Angela (Patricia Roc) seeks her out and is troubled by Granger’s brother Sandro (Peter Glenville).

Some action, a dash of romance and lots of pretty costumes are the solid back-up to the script and performances in this strong tale, well told in a carefully crafted screenplay by Roland Pertwee and Brock Williams, based on the 1931 novel by Margery Lawrence.

Engaging though Phyllis Calvert is, the equally likeable Stewart Granger, Patricia Roc, Peter Glenville, John Stuart, Dulcie Gray as Nesta and Jean Kent as Vittoria all contribute significantly to the success of this amusing hokum. Alas Jack E Cox shoots in black and white when colour is needed.

Madonna of the Seven Moons runs 110 minutes but the cut US version runs 88 minutes.

Also in the cast are Nancy Price, Peter Murray Hill, Reginald Tate, Amy Veness, Danny Green, Alan Haines, Hilda Bayley, Evelyn Darvell, Robert Speaight and Eliot Makeham.

Just in case audiences aren’t fully taken in by the story, there is assurance by the film-makers at the end: ‘This story is taken from life. There was a real Maddalena. The medical world have verified her case and other cases like it.’

Though Calvert plays Roc’s mother, she was only four months older.

Kent and Granger also made Fanny by Gaslight (1944), Waterloo Road (1945), Caravan (1946) and The Magic Bow (1946) together.

Madonna of the Seven Moons is directed by Arthur Crabtree, runs 110 minutes, is made by Gainsborough Pictures, is distributed by Eagle-Lion Distributors, is written by Roland Pertwee, based on The Madonna of Seven Moons by Margery Lawrence, is shot by Jack E Cox, is produced by Rubeigh James Minney, and is scored by Hans May.

The cast are 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, and Helen Haye as Mother Superior.

Phyllis Calvert recalled: ‘Arthur Crabtree was a very good cinematographer. It wasn’t that he 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.’

The Seventh Veil was the biggest winner at the box office in 1945 Britain, but Madonna of the Seven Moons was one of the most significant runners-up.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6,965

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