Die Sünde der Madelon Claudet

The Sin of Madelon Claudet opens with a beautiful view of the Eiffel tower and the Seine River. A women is contemplating leaving her husband, and suddenly, we are in a flashback, explaining how we had gotten to this point. Helen Hayes is Madelon Claudet, a single mother in Paris around 1900, fighting to get ahead in life. Viewers will recognize Alan Hale as Monsieur Hubert, playing -- a gruff, fat man that storms out of the room -- must have been a real reach for him... he did that in every movie he was in from 1911 - 1950. Also look for Lewis Stone as Carlo Boretti; he was the kindly Doctor in Grand Hotel. Robert Young, about 25 at the time, plays Madelon's son Lawrence Claudet in this film, only his second credited role. From the cast/crew list on IMDb, it also appears a lot of material was deleted. Other reviewers have said how this feels like a Barbara Stanwyck film, and I agree completely. Single woman up against the world, hitting bad luck around every corner. But, except for the last 2 minutes, it's not as silly, soapy as some have said; it tells a pretty good solid story, which probably happened pretty often back then (and still does). The version I saw on TCM actually had good quality sound and picture. The play "Lullaby" on which this is based, was written by the same guy that wrote "Kismet" in 1914 - Edward Knoblock.

Which do you talk about first? The saccharine, weepy tale of a mother's sacrifice? Or Helen Hayes' superb performance despite the claptrap about a woman who enables the son she gave away to become a great doctor? I'll go with Hayes. As Madelon, she goes from the naively adoring bride of a bounder to the mistress of a criminal nobleman to a fallen woman of the streets to a pathetic bag lady,each phase of her life revealing fresh nuances. No question she deserved the Oscar she won, if only for making the melodrama make sense and coping with direction that was clumsy even for 1932. Worth watching to see an amazingly gifted actress in her prime.

Helen Hayes makes an astonishing film debut here as the title character, a young woman who runs off with her poor beau and has a child. Through ensuing (and realistic) circumstances, she goes through the transitions of being a destitute country girl, a jewel thief's lover, a prison inmate and finally becoming a haggard vagrant. All of these incidents, at the expense of her own pleasure, are done in order to secure a place in life for her son as a prominent physician. At only 73 minutes, one would expect these changes to occur at somewhat of a breakneck speed, but the movie moves along at a leisurely and elegiac pace. Hayes won herself a well-deserved Academy Award for her luminous performance in this ultimate 1930s tearjerker.

The consummate Helen Hayes distinguishes this "fallen woman" film which would be only okay without her. The story resembles MADAME X, especially in the relationship between disgraced mother and clueless son. Starting as a farm girl in Normandy smitten with an American student (Neil Hamilton), Hayes progresses (or declines) to washerwoman, unwed mother, mistress to a wealthy crook (Lewis Stone), convict, high-class prostitute, streetwalker, aged derelict. She gets to play the spectrum of human emotions and vary her appearance from homely-wholesome to high glamour to harridan, from supreme confidence to abject humility. And she does it all with flying colors. Just as a study in good acting, this is worth a look. If anyone deserved an Oscar that year, it was she. And she got it.

The representations of prostitution are blatant, but no more so than in many other films of this period before the 1934 censorship clamp-down.

Helen Hayes is well worthy of the Oscar she won for her performance in this one. The role required her to play a young lover, single mother, wealthy socialite, prisoner, prostitute, and beaten-down old woman, and she did so brilliantly. I found her beautiful and a great actor, particularly at a time when overacting was the norm. The scene where she responds with a humorous puffy facial expression to a question about what someone is like is priceless. Her suggestions of lasciviousness using only her eyes are also great; while the movie is pre-Code and has a suggestive title, it's quite tame. We're all rooting for because she's been driven to such depths quite unfairly, and because she's made the incredible sacrifice of separating herself from her son, so that he can pursue being a doctor, unencumbered by her shame, which back then would have stopped him. It leads to a pretty syrupy ending, but was balanced for the most part, and the supporting cast is also strong.