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This glossy 1943 biopic of the lady that discovered
radium has all the trappings of a big budget MGM romance...with
science mixed in and two good looking people for good measure.
Based on the book by Curie's daughter, "Madame Curie" charts
Marie Sklodowska's (Greer Garson) life as she naviagates
the totally foreign land of romance (although lif she looked
like Greer Garson I would have a hard time believing that),
making breakthroughs in science and meeting her intellectual
and romantic match Piere (Walter Pidgeon). Featuring a great
supporting turn by Robert Walker ("Strangers on a Train")
MGM's "Madame Curie" may be like eating cheesecake (it's
filling, tastes great but isn't good for you) but the deft
direction and performances will make you feel that this
biopic is the essence of a film biography. Essentially "Madame
Curie" isn't all that different from other biopics released
during the 40's; it avoids the messy elements of the main
characters personal life, has just the right element of
melodrama and avoids controversey completely. ***
Like all of his pictures director Mervyn LeRoy does
a nice job of enhancing the already natural chemistry that
Garson and Pidgeon share. He handles both the interesting
and entertaining first half and the less substanial second
half of the film with ease. Although Garson doesn't bring
as much as she could to her performance (she's fine--but
there were other actresses available at the time who could
have done far more with the role. It should be noted, however,
that she was nominated for an Oscar along with Pidgeon which
is why this film is receiving its release shortly before
the air date of the Oscars) as she could she's credible
in the role and the previously mentioned chemistry between
the leaders makes up for some of the writing/performing
shortcomings in the film. ---
Image & Sound:
Warner has done such a nice job on this transfer that
I'm surprised it didn't glow in the dark. Blacks are rock
solid and you'd swear that the glow that Garson has in the
title role is due to the meticulous transfer from film to
the digital domain. While the film does have some analog
imperfections (occasional damage to the print used is evident
here) and probably could have used a bit more cleaning up,
I'm pretty pleased with what they've done here. It's nowhere
near the restoration (if any was done) as we saw with "King
Kong" or "Casablanca" but then again this doesn't have quite
the audience to probably justify spending the extra cash
on the minor imperfections. Audio comes across with crispness
and clarity in the mono soundtrack. ---
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