We’ve all heard in our history classes about Madame Curie discovering radium and how ultimately the radiation, something unknown to her and her husband at the time, ultimately took her life. The 1943 film based on her life expands on what we know about that story, humanizes those involved, and tells an entertaining story about perseverance and inspiration. It doesn’t dwell on the tragic ending but celebrates a marriage filled with challenges, both academic and emotional. It also has a delicious sense of humor, especially when focused on Pierre Curie, who is a brilliant scientist but clueless when it comes to women.
The film wisely chooses to focus on just a specific period in the lives of Marie (Greer Garson) and Pierre Curie (Walter Pidgeon). We learn nothing of her childhood and are only introduced to her while she is studying in Paris. We know she comes from Poland and intends to return there to teach after graduating, returning home to an elderly father whom she also intends to take care of. In the opening scene, we learn something important about her, though. She is so dedicated to her studies that she will neglect her own health to do it. This is revealed when she faints in class from malnutrition and has to be taken to a restaurant by her professor, Perot (Albert Bassermann), to get nourishment. It is a characteristic that we will see time and time again as she stubbornly refuses to give in to defeat. It also factors in to his portrayal as a mother.
While attending a soirée thrown by Perot, she meets Pierre Curie, a shy and awkward man completely devoted to his work as a research scientist. He offers her an opportunity to share his lab and discovers that she is a gifted scientist. When he learns that she intends to abandon research in favor of teaching in Poland, he is appalled. When he attempts to persuade her to continue her research, she is stubborn and insistent so he invites her to spend some time with his parents, who rightfully discern that their son has developed feelings for her. Eventually, he clumsily proposes to her, and they are married.
A chance encounter with a fellow scientist who was experimenting with rocks storing energy from the sun, Marie digs deeper into this, making it the subject of her doctoral study. But the measurements she takes don’t seem to add up, and she decides there must be a third radioactive element in the rock in addition to the ones she already knows about. The physics department, however, refuses to fund her research without more proof of the element’s existence. They do allow the two access to a dilapidated old shed across from the physics building, a building nearly unfit for habitation. There, Marie and Pierre continue their research, eventually cooking down eight tons of pitchblend ore in an attempt to produce a pure sample of the element they call radium.
After four years of work, they finally think they have it separated out, but when they go to look upon the results, they see nothing but a stain on the bottom of the dish that should have held radium. Thinking they failed again, they go home in frustration. But Marie can’t stop thinking about the results, and she decides that perhaps the stain really is the radium. They rush back to the shed and discover that the stain in the dish is glowing, finally providing proof of what they had always known. This proof makes the two famous, and after years of hard work and all the interviews granted after the discovery, they retreat for a much-needed vacation. After returning to Paris, they are given a new lab with state of the art equiptment, and Pierre goes out to get a gift for Marie to celebrate. This decision proves fatal as he is killed in a senseless accident, leaving her to continue on their work alone.
There are many more details to this story that are only lightly touched on, such as Marie’s development of burns on her hands from handling the radioactive materials. This is treated by the use of stricter precautions when working with the radium. They couldn’t have known at the time that radiation was slowly poisoning not only them but their whole family, including their children. And speaking of the children, this is only touched on briefly in the film, and it gives the impression that Marie and Pierre were absent parents, pawning their children off on his father to raise. Because of the narrow focus, we get nothing of the time Marie spent working with her daughter Iréne in her later years. This portrayal paints Marie Curie in a complicated light, not dislikable per se but not likable either. Most of the time, she is cold, emoting rarely. This may be true to character, but it creates a distance between audiences and her that Green Garson can’t quite overcome.
On the other hand, Pierre Curie’s awkwardness as he is trying to express his growing fondness for Marie endears him to us. It humanizes him so that after the two are married and the film shifts focus to the discovery of radium, we already have this affection towards him. Both Greer and Walter would be recognized for their performances here, so perhaps they were accurately portraying both of them, but there is no doubt this film wouldn’t work without Walter’s sometimes over-the-top performance. It’s not until Pierre dies that we get any real emotional response from Marie that isn’t work related and the film limits that to just a couple of minutes near the end of the film.
Because the film delves into some complex scientific concepts, there is a fair bit of technological jargon on display. Unfortunately, little effort was utilized to make it more palatable for those of us who understand little of that world. It makes sense from a reality standpoint that Marie, discussing things with her equally scientific husband, wouldn’t need to dumb down the discussion, but in a movie setting, it can make those scenes less entertaining and more like a lecture in college.
This film has many of the flaws a lot of biographical pictures have. For the most part, though, it presents the events distilled down into something that can be enjoyed and enlightening. The rather stand-offish performance by Greer Garson, though, can be a real stumbling block, especially with how her personal life is handled. While the discovery of radium was groundbreaking, the film never gives us much of an understanding as to why it is so, either. It assumes we know the history and the science. Not everybody does. It also soft-pedals the realities of the radiation poisoning that were happening as they did their experiments. We get a good sense of the events of the time, but the character of Marie Curie is almost as much an enigma by the end as she was from that first scene in class.
Academy Award Nominations:
Outstanding Motion Picture: Sidney Franklin
Best Actor: Walter Pidgeon
Best Actress: Greer Garson
Best Art Direction - Interior Decoration - Black-and-White: Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis, and Hugh Hunt
Best Cinematography - Black-and-White: Joseph Ruttenberg
Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture: Herbert Stothart
Best Sound Recording: Douglas Shearer
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Release Date: December 15, 1943
Running Time: 124 minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, and Henry Travers
Directed by: Mervyn LeRoy
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