excellent and unjustly overlook david lean film star his then wife ann todd and madeleine be terrific drama and and perhaps one of lean best directed film . todd be the young glasgow beauty madeleine smith and bring to trial in 1857 and accuse of murder her lover by lace his cocoa with arsenic . in sensational scene and madeleine be allow to walk free and prove neither guilty or innocent through a lack of evidence . lean take an interesting approach with his subject matter here . the casting of ann todd and a blonde and glacial and enigmatic presence serf to be the director strong point and a the ambiguity of madeleine smith motivation be increase . cinematographer guy green work with lean on the two dickens adaptation before this film and and he once again show absolute mastery of black and white image in this film . there be many strikingly composed shot in this film and not least the scene between todd and her lover and play by ivan desny . madeleine hand him his cup of cocoa and and the shot be frame so the cup be in the foreground and alert the viewer attention and question madeleine motif a she focus on the drink . at once we suspect her and know she have buy and use arsenic and but then doubt creep back into our mind . why would she let the young shop clerk and her maid both witness her buying arsenic and when it would have be much more clever of the woman to procure the poison by less public mean . another striking scene have madeleine tryst with her lover play out in the dark of night a she remove her shoe and dance to a scottish song playing in the distance . at once madeleine be free of the tie that bind her in the staid victorian england and and her joyful and seductive dancing be inter cut with rollick and very physical scene at the dance . soon madeleine be on the ground and lose her shawl . we fade to black and and lean have very implicitly inform u about the nature of their relation . the acting be generally very good and with the lead player add authenticity to their role . norman wooland play the wealthy and upstanding young man who court todd while she be still carry on an affair with desny . elizabeth sellars be also memorable a todd maid . most historian believe the woman be guilty of the crime and a she certainly be in possession of arsenic in the week lead up to her lover death and but lean chooses to direct in a detached manner and and by the film end we be still ponder do she or do not she . todd give a curious half smile to the camera in the final close up shot . be it a smile of a woman who have survive a terrible ordeal and or the smile of a murderer .