The old chestnut "Madame X" has had something like 9 screen versions, not to mention a play and the book. There's an occasional change here and there but the plot remains basically the same: A young woman is thrown out of her home and separated from her child. She hits the skids, and 20 years later, the child defends her on a murder charge.
So goes this version of "Madame X" as well, with a nice roster of stars: Lana Turner, Keir Dullea, John Forsythe, Ricardo Montalban, Constance Bennett, and Burgess Meredith. Turner is the unfortunate woman, happily married to Clayton Anderson (John Forsythe) a man with a good political future, and she's the mother of a young son. But the marriage becomes strained when Clayton is away too much, and Holly starts fooling around. When her husband comes home and she realizes how much she loves him, she tries to break it off with a roué (Ricardo Montalban). During an argument, he falls down the stairs to his death. Holly's mother-in-law, played by Constance Bennett, arranges for her to disappear with a new identity. In Europe, Holly meets a wealthy musician who falls in love with her, but she runs out on him - a big mistake - and ends up turning to alcohol and easy sex. When she murders a blackmailer (Meredith) who is going to tell her son who she is, she ends up on trial - defended by her son.
Well, the pot doesn't boil any better than this, and Hunter gives it a big, expensive production and sets Lana Turner loose in what is probably her best performance. Although the age/dissipation makeup is a little over the top, Turner gives the degenerate Holly a great, hard edge and a lot of frailty. It's a nice juxtaposition to the earlier sweetness and buoyancy of her character. Turner was one of those movie stars whose beauty, glamor, and private life often had critics not paying much attention to her performances, but she gave some good ones nonetheless. The other standout in the cast is Bennett, who's as slender as she was in the '30s and a lot tougher. Her voice has dropped a couple of octaves and her hair is a strange brown (this was perhaps in deference to the blond Lana). Toward the end of the film, she gets white hair softly styled and looks beautiful - even with the age makeup that needed to be added to the 60-year-old. The role of Forsythe's manipulative, protective mother is perfect for her -- a fitting last film for one of the great and prolific stars of the 1930s. She died before the film was released. Keir Dullea is appealing as the son, and Forsythe is pleasant though he doesn't have a huge role.
Try as they might, Madame X is from another time and by 1966 just wasn't great movie material. It is however, entertaining and engrossing. The most jaded person can't help but to be moved by the ending, though you may hate yourself for it.
