Madame Curie 1943

     This film is based on a memoir written by Eve Curie, Marie and Pierre’s daughter.  In 1895, Marie Salomea Sklodowska was a 24 year-old student at the Sorbonne studying for her Master’s degree in Physics.  She plans to return to her home country of Poland and teach.  She has written her father when she will be traveling.  Marie received permission to use space in Professor Pierre Curie’s laboratory.  She needs a lab to finish her studies for her degree.  Curie didn’t know a woman was coming to use the lab?  He is disappointed and he expects someone who will do a lot of talking and disrupt his concentration?  Nothing like this happens, she is not a disruption, they fall in love, she doesn’t return to Poland and they get married.  They work together to isolate a radioactive substance Marie has identified as radium.  They work on this project four long years in a lab that’s cold in the winter and hot in the summers.  They were married from 1895 to 1906 and they had two daughters, Irene Joliot and Eve. 

     I thought this film was excellent!!  A LOT of information I didn’t know before viewing!!  Unfortunately for the Curie’s, at this time the damaging effects of ionizing radiation were not known.  None of the safety measures that would be mandatory later were used in their experiments.  Marie was also exposed to X-rays from unshielded equipment while serving as a radiologist between 1914 and 1919 in field hospitals during WWI.  Because of her many decades of exposure, she had chronic illnesses.  She had near-blindness due to cataracts and she died from aplastic anemia in July of 1934.  This type of anemia is caused by damage to the bone marrow.  Also, some of the radiation was passed onto their daughters.  Irene Joliot-Curie was born in September of 1897 and she died in March of 1956 because of leukemia at the age of 59.  Eve was born in December of 1904 and she must have received less radiation from her family because she died in October 2007 at the age of 103. 

124 min, Bio directed by Mervyn LeRoy and Albert Lewin with Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers, Albert and Elsa Bassermann, Robert Walker, C. Aubrey Smith, May Whitty, Victor Francen, Reginald Owen, Van Johnson, Margaret O’Brien.

Note:  Imdb 7.2 out of 10, 83% critic 65% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 84 reviews, TCM Leonard Maltin 3* out of 4*, average user rating 5* out of 5*, DvdTalk average review 3* of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Culver City, California.  I didn’t realize this film was not filmed on location?  Only one scene, a long shot of the Curies on their honeymoon was filmed outside the studio. Joan Crawford was given weak scripts because MGM was hoping she would break her contract?  She wanted to appear in Random Harvest of 1942 and Madame Curie of 1943.  Both films were given to Greer Garson because she was a “bright new star.”  Crawford did leave MGM soon afterwards.  Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon made eight movies together.  Originally, this film was to star Greta Garbo and Spencer Tracy.  Eve Curie felt Garbo was too glamorous and her contract gave her star approval.  Eve insisted that Greer Garson be cast as her mother.  Garson was nominated for five consecutive Oscars for Best Actress.  These films were Blossoms in the Dust 1941, a win for Mrs. Miniver of 1942, Madame Curie of 1943, Mrs. Parkington 1944 and The Valley of Decision of 1945.