Back home

Madame Curie

50 votes

Poor physics student Marie is studying at the Sorbonne in 1890s Paris. One of the few women studying in her field, Marie encounters skepticism concerning her abilities, but is eventually offered a research placement in Pierre Curie's lab. The scientists soon fall in love and embark on a shared quest to extract, from a particular type of rock, a new chemical element they have named radium. However, their research puts them on the brink of professional failure.

Status: Released

Released Date: 1943-12-16

Runtime: 124 mins

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Writer: Ève Curie

Spoken language: English

Genres: Drama, Romance, History

Original title: Madame Curie

Production Companies: Loew's Incorporated, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Production Countries: United States of America

Cast

Greer Garson

Walter Pidgeon

Henry Travers

Albert Bassermann

Robert Walker

C. Aubrey Smith

May Whitty

President of University

Victor Francen

Elsa Bassermann

Reginald Owen

Van Johnson

Margaret O'Brien

Narration Spoken By (voice)

James Hilton

Tall Woman (uncredited)

Mariska Aldrich

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Fresh from their successful pairing in “Mrs Miniver”, Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon join forces for a melodrama about the French scientists who worked tirelessly to discover radium. Why, you might ask? Well, their friend had alerted them to the fact that a certain rock he found is capable of glowing in the dark? They know it isn’t one of the already identified elements and so Pierre Curie and his research assistant and soon to be wife Marie set about trying to get to the bottom of things. This is an onerous process with little backing from their peers, and indeed when Mme. Curie starts to see some ill effects that could suggest cancer, they begin to wonder if they shouldn’t just abandon the whole thing. Rather intuitively, though, they conclude that if this substance can kill healthy cells then maybe it can also nobble malevolent ones too? Now what ensues is actually quite a tough film to watch as their manual labours and sacrifices are really quite powerfully portrayed amidst frozen and rudimentary conditions in a glorified shed. There’s a solid chemistry between the two stars, the film’s production design is convincing and it obliquely looks at issues of sexism and establishment scepticism too. Speculative, sure, but quite enjoyable.

2025-07-06

Recommendations

The Rothschilds

1940-07-17

Biopic about the Rothschilds, a Jewish family whose members rose to the top of the European banking

3.8

Breaking the Limits

2017-11-17

Based on true events. In 1980s Poland, Jerzy Górski is a young man who finds the determination to st

3.8

Fearless

2006-01-26

After going through a series of tragic events in his life, martial arts master Huo Yuanjia returns t

Janko Kráľ

1972-01-01

Dempsey

1983-09-28

Nominated for two primetime Emmy Awards in 1984, this made-for-TV movie follows the true story of Am

2.4

Aleksandr Parkhomenko

1942-07-20

About the life and heroic death of the old Bolshevik-Lugansk resident, participant in the civil war,

3.7

The Hurricane

1999-09-17

The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aid

3.3

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

2004-10-01

The turbulent personal and professional life of actor Peter Sellers (1925-1980), from his beginnings

3.4

1987

2014-11-23

In 1987, Ricardo is 17 years old. This summer, Ricardo has a busy schedule: loose his virginity, fin

3.1

W.

2008-10-17

The story of the eventful life of George W. Bush—his struggles and triumphs, how he found both his w

2.5

La última frontera

1992-02-27

3.2

Bugsy

1991-12-10

New York gangster Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel takes a brief business trip to Los Angeles. A sharp-dressing wo

Diesel

1943-02-09

Thomas Müntzer

1956-05-16

In 1523, young Thomas Müntzer arrives with his wife Ottilie in the Thuringian village Allstedt to as

3.6

Hunger

2008-05-15

The story of Bobby Sands, the IRA member who led the 1981 hunger strike during The Troubles in which

Execution Is Not Possible

1982-11-08

Boris Zhadanovsky, a hereditary nobleman and officer who was predicted to have a brilliant military

3.5

The Doors

1991-03-01

The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morris

Dreyfus

1931-04-18

In 1894, French officer Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted for the treasonous acts of another man,

3.4

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

1993-05-07

This film is a glimpse into the life, love and the unconquerable spirit of the legendary Bruce Lee.

3.7

Chaplin

1992-12-17

An aged Charlie Chaplin narrates his life to his autobiography's editor, including his rise to wealt