Take a bit of 'Black Narcissus' and throw in a bit of 'Rebecca' and you have 'Madness Of The Heart' from 1949. Lydia Garth meets a man, falls in love, goes blind, enters a convent, comes out again, meets previous man, gets married, goes to France, gets persecuted. Nothing surprising which is a shame as it had a lot of potential. The good cast act gamely but the pedestrian script is impossible to enliven.
What it does have is Kathleen Byron playing Verite Faimont, channeling her Sister Ruth from 'Black Narcissus', as a jealous woman who covets Lydia Garth's husband. In an interview in 1990 Kathleen Byron said she was by the time of this film fed up playing these types of roles but no one did it better. She scorches the screen whenever she is on. In the horse riding scene she looks full of rage, frustration and sexiness at the same time. It took by breath away.
The music by Allan Gray is good and the ubiquitous Sam Kydd turns up in a blink-and-you'll-miss-him-role, otherwise it's a conventional soap opera, apart from the kick that Kathleen Byron gives to it.
What it does have is Kathleen Byron playing Verite Faimont, channeling her Sister Ruth from 'Black Narcissus', as a jealous woman who covets Lydia Garth's husband. In an interview in 1990 Kathleen Byron said she was by the time of this film fed up playing these types of roles but no one did it better. She scorches the screen whenever she is on. In the horse riding scene she looks full of rage, frustration and sexiness at the same time. It took by breath away.
The music by Allan Gray is good and the ubiquitous Sam Kydd turns up in a blink-and-you'll-miss-him-role, otherwise it's a conventional soap opera, apart from the kick that Kathleen Byron gives to it.