# Sergeant Madden

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{{short description|1939 film by Josef von Sternberg}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Sergeant Madden
| image          = Sergeant-madden-1939.jpg| narrator       =
| starring       = [Wallace Beery](/source/Wallace_Beery)<br />[Tom Brown](/source/Tom_Brown_(actor))<br />[Alan Curtis](/source/Alan_Curtis_(American_actor))<br>[Laraine Day](/source/Laraine_Day)
| music          = [William Axt](/source/William_Axt)
| caption        = Film poster
| director       = [Josef von Sternberg](/source/Josef_von_Sternberg)
| producer       = [J. Walter Ruben](/source/J._Walter_Ruben)
| writer         =
| cinematography = [John F. Seitz](/source/John_F._Seitz)
| editing        = [Conrad A. Nervig](/source/Conrad_A._Nervig)
| distributor    = [Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer](/source/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
| released       = {{Film date|1939|03|24}}
| runtime        = 80 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         =
}}
'''''Sergeant Madden''''' is a 1939 [film noir](/source/film_noir) forerunner directed by [Josef von Sternberg](/source/Josef_von_Sternberg) and starring [Wallace Beery](/source/Wallace_Beery). The supporting cast in this dark police crime drama, noted for its imaginative and evocative [cinematography](/source/cinematography), includes [Tom Brown](/source/Tom_Brown_(actor)), [Laraine Day](/source/Laraine_Day), [Alan Curtis](/source/Alan_Curtis_(American_actor)), and [Marc Lawrence](/source/Marc_Lawrence).

==Plot==
{{no plot|date=October 2022}}

==Cast==
*[Wallace Beery](/source/Wallace_Beery) as Sergeant Madden
*[Tom Brown](/source/Tom_Brown_(actor)) as Al Boylan, Jr.
*[Alan Curtis](/source/Alan_Curtis_(American_actor)) as Dennis Madden
*[Laraine Day](/source/Laraine_Day) as Eileen Daly (billed as "Laraine Johnson")
*[Fay Holden](/source/Fay_Holden) as Mary Madden
*[Marc Lawrence](/source/Marc_Lawrence) as "Piggy" Ceders
*[Marion Martin](/source/Marion_Martin) as Charlotte LePage 
*[David Gorcey](/source/David_Gorcey) as Punchy LePage 
*[Donald Haines](/source/Donald_Haines) as Milton 
*[Ben Welden](/source/Ben_Welden) as Henchman Stemmy 
*[Etta McDaniel](/source/Etta_McDaniel) as Dove 
*[John Kelly](/source/John_Kelly_(actor)) as Henchman Nero 
*[Horace McMahon](/source/Horace_McMahon) as Philadelphia 
*[Neil Fitzgerald](/source/Neil_Fitzgerald) as Casey 
*[Dickie Jones](/source/Dickie_Jones) as Dennis as a boy 
*Drew Roddy as Albert as a boy 
*[Charles Trowbridge](/source/Charles_Trowbridge) as Commissioner 
*[George Irving](/source/George_Irving_(American_actor)) as Police Commissioner

==Background==
{{multiple image
| align = left
| image1 = 
| width1 = 270
| alt1 = 
| caption1 = 
| image2 = 
| width2 = 325
| alt2 = 
| caption2 = 
| footer = Left: Sergeant Shaun Madden (Wallace Beery), Eileen Daly (Laraine Day), Al Boylan, Jr. (Tom Brown) and Dennis Madden (Alan Curtis)<br>Right: Mary Madden (Fay Holden) and Shaun Madden (Wallace Beery)
}}

In the winter of 1937, Josef von Sternberg was in Vienna assembling the cast for the film version of [Émile Zola](/source/%C3%89mile_Zola)’s [Germinal](/source/Germinal_(novel)), with [Hilde Krahl](/source/Hilde_Krahl) tapped to play Catherine and [Jean-Louis Barrault](/source/Jean-Louis_Barrault) as Etienne. The Austrian financed project collapsed when Germany [invaded the nation](/source/Anschluss) in March 1938. Sternberg, ill in London at the time, returned to his California residence to convalesce for several months.<ref>Baxter, 1971. P. 149-150</ref>

In October 1938, Sternberg returned to [Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer](/source/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) under a single-movie contract to direct actress [Hedy Lamarr](/source/Hedy_Lamarr) in ''New York Cinderella'' (later entitled [''I Take This Woman''](/source/I_Take_This_Woman_(1940_film))). The filming required so many revisions that it was known on set as "I Re-take this Woman".<ref>Sutpen, 2006.</ref> Unhappy with his lack of control over the direction, Sternberg quit the production after a week: the film was completed by director [Willard Van Dyke](/source/Willard_Van_Dyke) and released in February 1940.<ref>Baxter, 1971. P. 150-151</ref><ref>Weinberg, 1967. p. 70: "called it quits over issue of directorial freedom."</ref>

==Production==
Sternberg would fulfill his movie contract for Metro with a crime drama, ''Sergeant Madden'', with character actor Wallace Beery, a box-office favorite, in the lead role of New York City Patrolman Shawn Madden.<ref>Sutpen, 2006</ref><ref>Baxter, 1971. P. 151</ref> The film was already in production when Sternberg arrived on the set.<ref>Baxter, 1993. P. 177</ref>

The ''Sergeant Madden'' screenplay, based on a story by [William A. Ullman](/source/William_A._Ullman) entitled “A Gun in His Hand”  was an “over-plotted [potboiler](/source/potboiler) paying sentimental tribute to ‘the cop on the beat’...”<ref>Sutpen, 2006</ref><ref>Weinberg, 1967. p. 70: "...a ''roman policier'' type of film..."</ref>

Wallace Beery, a “Metro institution”, provided a reliable source of revenue for the corporation, despite his “tiresome screen performance.”<ref>Sutpen, 2006</ref> When Sternberg attempted to elicit a more disciplined approach from Beery, the studio hierarchy instructed the director to cease his overly “demanding rehearsals.”<ref>Sutpen, 2006</ref><ref>Baxter, 1971. P. 151</ref> Despite the Metro's interference “Beery’s performance in ''Sergeant Madden'' is one of the least maudlin in his gallery of indistinguishable character roles” and “unusually controlled and believable” is attributable to Sternberg's influence.<ref>Baxter, 1971. P. 151: Beery’s “eventual acceptance of Sternberg’s [directorial] system.”</ref>

The film was released on March 24, 1939, and “did quite well.”<ref>Sutpen, 2006</ref>

==Critical response==
Film critic Tom Sutpen  writing for [Bright Lights Film Journal](/source/Bright_Lights_Film_Journal) argues that as a Wallace Beery vehicle, guided by the market-driven contingencies of MGM - compounded by the director's “sheer indifference” – produced “the worst film [that Sternberg] would ever put his name to.”<ref>Weinberg, 1967. p. 70: "[Sternberg's] heart wasn't in it - and that always shows."</ref>  Elements of the film - most prominently the theme of the “troubled cop” - foreshadowed the [Film Noir](/source/Film_Noir) of the post-WWI era.<ref>Sutpen, 2006</ref>

Film Historian [Andrew Sarris](/source/Andrew_Sarris) points to “Sternberg’s distinctive framing and filters which give the movie a [UFA](/source/UFA_GmbH) look... one can almost see the ghost of [Jannings](/source/Emil_Jannings) in Beery’s unusually restrained performance.”<ref>Sarris, 1966. P. 47</ref><ref>Baxter, 1971. P. 153: Sternberg “recreate[s] as much as possible the distant greyness of [Murnau](/source/F.W._Murnau). Even the minor characters are interchangeable with [those of] UFA films” of the 1920s.</ref>

==Theme==
Andrew Sarris writes that “''Sergeant Madden'' is of more sociological than aesthetic interest despite Sternberg’s visually striking direction.” The story concerns "a natural [biological] son" who goes bad, and ultimately atones for his sins: "the notion of a blood son being morally inferior to an adopted son is another movie cliché.” The moral of the tale is simply that "society transcends family" in the larger public interest.<ref>Sarris, 1966. P. 47</ref><ref>Sarris, 1998. p. 232</ref><ref>Baxter, 1971. p. 153</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*[Baxter, John](/source/John_Baxter_(author)). 1971. ''The Cinema of Josef von Sternberg''. The International Film Guide Series. A.S Barners & Company, New York.
*Sarris, Andrew. 1966. ''The Films of Josef von Sternberg''. Museum of Modern Art/Doubleday. New York, New York.
* Sarris, Andrew. 1998. “You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet.” The American Talking Film History & Memory, 1927–1949. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-513426-5}}
*Sutpen, Tom. 2006. ''Auteur in Distress: On Wallace Beery, von Sternberg, and Sergeant Madden''. Bright Lights Film Journal. Retrieved 12 July 2018. http://brightlightsfilm.com/auteur-distress-wallace-beery-von-sternberg-sergeant-madden/#.W0ea_ZCWyUk
*[Weinberg, Herman G.](/source/Herman_G._Weinberg), 1967. ''Josef von Sternberg. A Critical Study''. New York: Dutton.

==External links==
*{{IMDb title|0031917}}

{{Josef von Sternberg}}

Category:1939 American films
Category:1939 English-language films
Category:1939 crime films
Category:1939 films
Category:American black-and-white films
Category:American crime films
Category:Film noir
Category:Films directed by Josef von Sternberg
Category:Films scored by William Axt
Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Category:English-language crime films

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Sergeant Madden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_Madden) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_Madden?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.