Jennifer Jones stars in this 1949 adaptation of the Flaubert classic (who is played here by James Mason as he defends his novel in an obscenity case which bookends the film) where our heroine has the unmitigated gall to commit adultery & pay the price for it by society. Raised in meager circumstances (we see her in an orphanage during her formative years) but upon meeting a kindly, country doctor, played by Van Heflin, the temptation is set for Jones to try to better her station (she goes all out redecorating their home going into quiet debt over it) & when the pair attend a gala being thrown by the hoi polloi she meets a law clerk, played Louis Jordan, who quite literally sweeps her off her feet & even though there is a child at home, their tryst continues w/o abatement. The debts finally come due & when the weasel of a merchant has sold her debt to another, he makes no bones in trading her debt for flesh sending her towards a rash & fatal decision. Director Vincent Minnelli (Some Came Running/Meet Me in St. Louis) has the eye & gumption (the ballroom sequence is fantastic as windows are destroyed open because Jones is feeling the heat) to take on this tome but as the character herself is so willing to throw herself into a pit of her own making, it's hard to gauge any remorse for her. Also starring Harry Morgan (Colonel Potter from TV's MASH) as the town cripple.
Review of Madame Bovary
