Van Heflin and James Mason

(On Cable TV, June 2022) Is there a more backhanded compliment as “a professional production”? No question of enjoyment, importance or success: simply an acknowledgement that the production was expensive, that it corresponds to a certain standard of formal presentation and that’s it. At first glance, it’s easy to be excited at the idea of a late-1940s MGM adaptation of Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, especially once you factor in director Vincente Minelli, and actors Jennifer Jones, Van Heflin and James Mason. At the time, the studio was an undisputed champion of costume dramas and could command, as they often repeated, “as many stars as there are in heaven.”  Documentaries have detailed how the studio employed artisans and technicians in over 200 specialties, ensuring that they could throw money and experts at the prestige production that came their way. Madame Bovary wasn’t quite an ultra-lavish production – simply shooting it in black-and-white at a time when colour was available is indicative enough, even considering that black-and-white was seen at the time as more appropriate to serious dramas. Everywhere else, however, the money is on-screen: The film walked away with a well-deserved Academy Award nomination for set design, and the costumes aren’t too shabby either. (There’s even an elaborate ball sequence.)  For twenty-first century viewers, there’s an added fillip of interest in having the novel’s narrative wrapped up in a censor-appeasing framing device that sees Flaubert himself justifying his novel to those who would ban it. It’s a slick production all right – but in the end, it seems to miss the mark with actors who don’t seem ideally cast to get to the dramatic heart of the story (yes, even my favourites Mason and Heflin), and a slow pacing that prevents any energy from emerging from the story. Madame Bovary remains both a success and a misfire – lovely to look at, but not for more than a few moments at a time.