Madonna of the Seven Moons is a 1945 British drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures and starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. The film was produced by Rubeigh James Minney, with cinematography from Jack Cox and screenplay by Roland Pertwee. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas. Plot A buried trauma from the past holds the key to the disappearance of a respectable married woman. Maddalena has a dual personality which leads her to forsake her husband and daughter, to flee to the house of the Seven Moons in Florence as the mistress of a jewel thief. Cast Phyllis Calvert as Maddalena Labardi Stewart Granger as Nino Barucci Patricia Roc as Angela Labardi Peter Glenville as Sandro Barucci John Stuart as Giuseppe Labardi Nancy Price as Mama Barucci Reginald Tate as Doctor Charles Ackroyd Jean Kent as Vittoria Peter Murray-Hill as Jimmy Logan Dulcie Gray as Nesta Logan Alan Haines as Evelyn Hilda Bayley as Mrs. Fiske Evelyn Darvell as Millie Fiske Amy Veness as Tessa Robert Speaight as Priest Eliot Makeham as Bossi Danny Green as Scorpi Helen Haye as Mother Superior Calvert playing Roc’s glamorous mother was only four months her senior in real life. Background The film was based on a 1931 novel by Margery Lawrence. Film rights were bought by Gaumont British in 1938 who wanted to turn it into a vehicle for Renée Saint-Cyr, as part of an ambitious slate for Gainsborough in 1939. However the advent of World War II disrupted these and plans to film Madonna were put on the backburner. The project was re-activated in 1944 following the box office success of The Man in Grey and Fanny by Gaslight. It was the first film directed by Arthur Crabtree. He had spent many years previously working for Gainsborough as a cinematographer. Phyllis Calvert later recalled: Arthur was a very good cinematographer, but there weren't enough directors, and so people who were scriptwriters or were behind the camera were suddenly made directors. It wasn't that Crabtree was an unsatisfactory director, just that we found ourselves very satisfactory – we did it ourselves. But the fact that he had been a lighting cameraman was wonderful for us, because he knew exactly how to photograph us. Academic Sue Harper later wrote an analysis of the film, where she attributed producer R.J. Minney as being the main creative force behind it.