Madame Curie (film)

1943 American film by Mervyn LeRoy

Madame Curie

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Mervyn LeRoy
Written by| Aldous Huxley
(uncredited)
Paul Osborn
Hans Rameau
Walter Reisch
Based on| Madame Curie
1938 novel
by Ève Curie
Produced by| Sidney Franklin
Starring| Greer Garson
Walter Pidgeon
Henry Travers
Cinematography| Joseph Ruttenberg
Edited by| Harold F. Kress
Music by| Herbert Stothart
William Axt

Production
company

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Distributed by| Loew's Inc.

Release date

* December 15, 1943 (1943-12-15)

Running time

| 124 minutes
Country| United States
Language| English
Budget| $1,938,000[1]
Box office| $4,610,000[1]

Madame Curie is a 1943 American biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.[2][3] The film was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sidney Franklin from a screenplay by Paul Osborn, Paul H. Rameau, and Aldous Huxley (uncredited), adapted from the biography by Ève Curie. It stars Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, with supporting performances by Robert Walker, Henry Travers, and Albert Bassermann.

The film tells the story of Polish-French physicist Marie Curie in 1890s Paris as she begins to share a laboratory with her future husband Pierre Curie.

This was the fourth of nine onscreen pairings with Pidgeon and Garson.[4]

In several versions, much of the scientific aspects of the film were cut or removed entirely. Turner Classic Movies has shown it unedited at 124 minutes.

## Plot

[edit]

Walter Pidgeon, Greer Garson and Margaret O'Brien in Madame Curie

Marie Skłodowska is a poor, idealistic student living in Paris and studying at the Sorbonne. She neglects her health and one day faints during class. Her tutor, Prof. Perot is sympathetic and, finding that she has no friends or family in Paris, invites her to a soirée his wife is throwing for a "few friends" (primarily professors and their wives). Among the many guests is physicist Pierre Curie, an extremely shy and absentminded man completely devoted to his work. He allows Marie to share his lab and finds that she is a gifted scientist. Appalled that she plans on returning to Poland to teach after graduation rather than devoting her life to further study, he takes her to visit his family in their country home. Marie and Pierre both tend to concentrate on science to the extent that they don't realize until the last minute they have fallen in love. Even when Pierre asks Marie to be his wife, he does so in terms of reason, logic and chemistry.

Fascinated by a demonstration she saw as an undergraduate, of a pitchblende rock that seems to generate enough energy to take small photographs, Marie decides to make the rock's energy the subject of her doctoral study. The measurements she takes don't seem to add up, and she decides there must be a third radioactive element in the rock in addition to the two she knows are in it. In the midst of discussing this, she discloses offhandedly to Pierre's family that she is pregnant.

The physics department at the Sorbonne refuses to fund their research without more proof of the element's existence, but allows them to use a dilapidated old shed across the courtyard from the physics building. In spite of its disadvantages, they import eight tons of pitchblende ore and cook it down to look for the element they call radium. In spite of inability to separate out pure radium, they know something is definitely there, as Marie's hands are being burned. They hit on a tedious method of crystallization to isolate pure radium. After four years, they find only a stain on the bottom of the dish that should have held the radium. They return to the shed that night and find the dish glowing, confirming that they have isolated the radium.

Now world-famous, they go on vacation to rest after all the press conferences and the Nobel Prize. They're granted a new laboratory by the university; before its dedication, Marie shows off her new dress, inspiring Pierre to get her a set of earrings to go with it. Walking home in the rain, he absentmindedly crosses the street in front of a delivery wagon, and he is run down and killed. Marie almost loses her mind, but after the concerned Prof. Perot counsels her, she remembers Pierre's words that if one of them is gone, the other must go on working just the same. Finally, Marie gives a speech at the 25th anniversary celebration of the discovery of radium, expressing her belief that science is the path to a better world.

## Cast

[edit]

* Greer Garson as Marie Curie
* Walter Pidgeon as Pierre Curie
* Henry Travers as Eugène Curie [fr]
* Albert Bassermann as Prof. Jean Perot
* Robert Walker as David Le Gros
* C. Aubrey Smith as Lord Kelvin
* Dame May Whitty as Madame Eugene Curie
* Victor Francen as President of University
* Elsa Bassermann as Madame Perot
* Reginald Owen as Dr. Becquerel
* Van Johnson as Reporter
* Margaret O'Brien as Irène Curie (at age 5)
* James Hilton as Narrator (voice)
* Lisa Golm as Lucille

## Production

[edit]

Universal Studios quickly bought the rights to Ève Curie's book, with Irene Dunne in mind to play Marie. Dunne traveled to Europe and met with Ève Curie to discuss the project, but Universal sold the property to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer a few years later.[4] In March 1938, Anita Loos contacted Aldous Huxley, then recently moved to Hollywood, saying she would put him in touch with MGM for a writing contract. Madame Curie was originally set for production in 1941 starring Greta Garbo with George Cukor directing.[5] MGM ultimately rejected Huxley's script for Madame Curie as "too literary," and after Garbo's success in Ninotchka, MGM wanted her to star in another romantic comedy. The project was shelved and Garbo left MGM for good in 1942.[4]

MGM's star Joan Crawford was interested in the role Marie as she wanted to play serious characters, but her request was rejected by Mayer. The role went to Greer Garson, and Crawford cited it as a reason to leave MGM and sign to Warner Brothers.[6]

Mervyn LeRoy replaced Albert Lewin, who was fired shortly before production began.

While the film is heavily fictionalized for dramatic purposes, the plot managed to adhere to the facts more than most biopics of the 1930s and 1940s.[4] Madame Curie completely omits any mention of Marie's family in Paris, including her sister Bronisława, an obstetrician, with whom she was very close. There is also virtually no mention of Marie's intense devotion to politics and the liberation/independence of her native Poland.

Author James Hilton was the narrator for this film.

## Box office

[edit]

According to MGM records the film earned $2,575,000 in the US and Canada and $2,035,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $1,086,000.[1][7]

## Accolades

[edit]

Award  | Category  | Nominee(s)  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|

Academy Awards | Outstanding Motion Picture | Sidney Franklin (for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)  | Nominated  | [8]
Best Actor | Walter Pidgeon | Nominated
Best Actress | Greer Garson | Nominated
Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration – Black-and-White | Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt | Nominated
Best Cinematography – Black-and-White | Joseph Ruttenberg | Nominated
Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture | Herbert Stothart | Nominated
Best Sound Recording | Douglas Shearer (for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Sound Department)  | Nominated

Others

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

* 2006: AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – #97[9]

## In popular culture

[edit]

Madame Curie was satirized in a 1976 episode of SCTV as Madame Blitzman (mistakenly shown on 'Monster Chiller Horror Theater') in which Frances Blitzman/Marie Curie (Andrea Martin) works alongside her husband Louis Blitzman/Pierre Curie (Eugene Levy) in creating a life-extension formula derived from radiation exposure. However, Louis suffers from painful recurring headaches which kill him eventually; at a meeting of the 'Academy of Science', an aged Frances reveals that Louis's experiments caused a plaque to grow in his brain, causing the painful headaches which killed him, and which are also affecting her.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
2. ^ Variety film review; November 24, 1943, page 18.
3. ^ Harrison's Reports film review; November 20, 1943, page 187.
4. ^ a b c d "Madame Curie". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved November 26, 2024.
5. ^ Sybille Bedford, Aldous Huxley: A Biography (1974), p. 369 and Barry Paris, Garbo (1996)
6. ^ "What This Real Moment In Feud Actually Looked Like".
7. ^ "Top Grossers of the Season", Variety, 5 January 1944 p 54
8. ^ "The 16th Academy Awards (1944) Nominees and Winners". Oscars.org (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). Archived from the original on 2013-10-14. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
9. ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved 2016-08-14.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Madame Curie (film).

* Madame Curie at IMDb
* Madame Curie at the TCM Movie Database
* Madame Curie at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
* Madame Curie at Rotten Tomatoes
* Madame Curie at Box Office Mojo

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Mervyn LeRoy

1920s|

* No Place to Go (1927)
* Flying Romeos (1928)
* Harold Teen (1928)
* Oh, Kay! (1928)
* Naughty Baby (1928)
* Hot Stuff (1929)
* Broadway Babies (1929)
* Little Johnny Jones (1929)

1930s|

* Playing Around (1930)
* Showgirl in Hollywood (1930)
* Numbered Men (1930)
* Top Speed (1930)
* Little Caesar (1931)
* Gentleman's Fate (1931)
* Too Young to Marry (1931)
* Broadminded (1931)
* Five Star Final (1931)
* Local Boy Makes Good (1931)
* Tonight or Never (1931)
* Big City Blues (1932)
* Two Seconds (1932)
* Three on a Match (1932)
* The Heart of New York (1932)
* I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
* High Pressure (1932)
* Elmer, the Great (1933)
* Hard to Handle (1933)
* Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
* Tugboat Annie (1933)
* The World Changes (1933)
* Heat Lightning (1934)
* Hi Nellie! (1934)
* Sweet Adeline (1934)
* Happiness Ahead (1934)
* Page Miss Glory (1935)
* I Found Stella Parish (1935)
* Oil for the Lamps of China (1935)
* Anthony Adverse (1936)
* Three Men on a Horse (1936)
* The King and the Chorus Girl (1937)
* They Won't Forget (1937, uncredited)
* Fools for Scandal (1938)
* The Wizard of Oz (1939, uncredited)

1940s|

* Waterloo Bridge (1940)
* Escape (1940)
* Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
* Unholy Partners (1941)
* Johnny Eager (1941)
* Random Harvest (1942)
* Madame Curie (1943)
* Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
* The House I Live In (1945)
* Without Reservations (1946)
* Desire Me (1947)
* Homecoming (1948)
* Any Number Can Play (1949)
* East Side, West Side (1949)
* Little Women (1949)

1950s|

* Quo Vadis (1951)
* Lovely to Look At (1952)
* Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)
* Latin Lovers (1953)
* Rose Marie (1954)
* Mister Roberts (1955)
* Strange Lady in Town (1955)
* The Bad Seed (1956)
* Toward the Unknown (1956)
* No Time for Sergeants (1958)
* Home Before Dark (1958)
* The FBI Story (1959)

1960s|

* Wake Me When It's Over (1960)
* A Majority of One (1961)
* The Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961)
* Gypsy (1962)
* Mary, Mary (1963)
* Moment to Moment (1966)
* The Green Berets (1968)

* v
* t
* e

Marie and  Pierre Curie

Discoveries|

* Curie's law
* Curie–Weiss law
* Curie temperature
* Mean-field theory
* Piezoelectricity
* Polonium
* Radioactivity
* Radium

Publications|

* Curie's principle
* Treatise on Radioactivity

Museums|

* Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum

Family|

* Irène Joliot-Curie (daughter)
* Ève Curie (daughter)
* Hélène Langevin-Joliot (granddaughter)
* Pierre Joliot (grandson)
* Paul-Jacques Curie (Pierre's brother)
* Frédéric Joliot-Curie (son-in-law)

Namesakes|

* Curie Institute
* Curie
* Curium
* IEEE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award
* Marie Curie Medal
* Maria Skłodowska-Curie Bridge
* Maria Skłodowska-Curie Park
* Maria Curie-Skłodowska University
* Pierre and Marie Curie University
* Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology
* Curie Island
* 7000 Curie

Depictions|

* Maria Skłodowska-Curie Monument in Lublin
* Maria Skłodowska-Curie Monument in Warsaw (Downtown)
* Maria Skłodowska-Curie Monument in Warsaw (Ochota)
* Marie Curie Gargoyle
* Maria Skłodowska-Curie Medallion
* Madame Curie (1943 film)
* Les Palmes de M. Schutz (1997 film)
* Marie Curie, une femme sur le front (2014 film)
* Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge (2016 film)
* Radioactive (2019 film)

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