Le secret de Madame Blanche

IRENE DUNNE had THE SECRET OF MADAME BLANCHE. It's the forerunner of all those Madame X stories that gave actresses meaty roles in tear-jerkers. For Olivia de Havilland it was TO EACH HIS OWN. For Lana Turner and earlier, Ruth Chatterton, it was MADAME X. For Helen Hayes it was THE SIN OF MADELON CLAUDET. These were the kind of stories that spanned some twenty years, always about women who were cheated out of mother love--women who fell in love unwisely and were then cheated by circumstances.

LIONEL ATWILL is the rich father whose son (PHILLIPS HOLMES) has fallen in love with a cabaret singer and he opposes the match from the start, threatening to stop giving his son handouts to keep them solvent. The son is destitute when he learns that she's about to have a baby and finally commits suicide. The years fly by and Dunne is now a working woman in London at a not very reputable establishment populated by servicemen. It's World War I and one of the patrons is a young man who makes a fuss over not being given a room. He turns out to be her son and she is soon protecting him from a murder charge.

It's a pretty plot-heavy melodrama with enough twists and turns to keep the viewer interested, but you have to have a taste for these mother/son tear-jerkers to truly enjoy this sort of film.

The final scene with mother and son reunited at a prison after a stormy trial, is reminiscent of MADAME X--but at least here, the son learns the true identity of his mother.

Innocent woman meets rich playboy. Innocent woman is seduced by rich playboy. Innocent woman is abandoned by rich playboy. Innocent woman has rich playboy's child. Innocent woman loses rich playboy's child. No-longer-innocent woman ages and prepares to sacrifice all for her child.

An entire genre of motion pictures, which often feature Barbara Stanwyck or Lana Turner, has used this basic plot to wring tears from largely female audiences. In "The Secret of Madame Blanche," Irene Dunne takes a turn at this well-worn routine and maintains her dignity throughout, despite the script's attempts to drown her in clichés. In the role of showgirl, Sally Sanders, Dunne has a few opportunities to show off her fine voice, but the musical selections are poor. The relatively short film, which was adapted from a play, lurches forward from hackneyed scene to hackneyed scene and leaves chasms of time for the audience to fill in. Occasionally, patient viewers will be rewarded with dialog and delivery so rich in camp that they will howl helplessly with unintended laughter, although a mouth-to-mouth kiss between mother and son, perhaps common for the period, induces cringes today. While Lionel Atwill is effective as Aubrey St. John, the selfish controlling father, and Philips Holmes is appropriately weak as his son, the rich playboy, the film offers little beyond the incomparable Irene Dunne slumming in a sub-par vehicle. Coincidences abound, French accents come and go, laws benefit the rich and oppress the poor, and a mother's self-sacrificing love conquers all. What more could one ask for? Perhaps Barbara Stanwyck and "Stella Dallas?"

If I had been Irene Dunne in The Secret Of Madame Blanche I might have thought twice about eloping with charming wastrel Phillips Holmes.. Sadly she met his ironfisted father Lionel Atwill only after they were married.

Dunne plays a singer and does get to show her vocal talents in this film which is always appreciated. Holmes who does nothing, but spend dear old dad's money in various hedonistic pursuits. Of course dad does not even try to channel Holmes into some useful profession where he could have an income. What he wants and frankly I thought this a hoot, he wants to have him get a seat in Parliament with of course an arranged marriage with a woman of the proper station.

Atwill has really no redeeming qualities as a father. He just wants to dominate his kid. Eventually he forces Dunne to give her child over to him to be raised in the image. As the kid grows up to be Douglas Walton he truly is a chip off the old Atwill/Holmes block.

Fast forward to the World War I years and Walton while AWOL gets himself in a big jackpot and he also meets Dunne with no idea she's his mom. Atwill told him she was dead.

I won't go any farther except to say that the whole thing has a Madame X quality to it. It does work out better for the principal cast members.

The Secret Of Madame Blanche is a property very unlikely to be remade. Still the cast led by Dunne, Holmes, Atwill, and Walton does pull it together.

This is a film that probably won't please everyone. Viewers looking for a film with a lot of realism and a plot that is lacking plot holes would probably find it pretty tough going. Plus, those who aren't particularly inclined to watch old fashioned soap operas might also balk at seeing this film. So be it. However, for a lover of classic Hollywood films who accepts all the irony and melodrama without being too critical, the final product is lovely to watch and very satisfying.

Now I must admit that usually a film with this many weepy scenes turns me off a bit, but the writers, directors and Irene Dunne manage to weave a tale so well that my sometime cynical nature was kept in abeyance. Plus, the amazingly awful and evil character played by Lionel Atwill was one of his best roles--one that will definitely make an impression on the viewer. Now I must admit that the impossibility of the final third of the film was at first a bit hard to take, but when the plot wrapped up like it did, I found I just didn't care--I wanted the hokey Hollywood ending and enjoyed it thoroughly. An excellent weepy film--similar to, but in many ways superior to MADAME X and SO BIG! If you liked this film, try Barbara Stanwyck's STELLA DALLAS--another great weepy melodrama.

This is a truly silly film in which Irene Dunne falls in love with Phillpis Homes. She is a performer; so that won't do with his fine family. She thinks she can get his father to reconsider. But we know better: The father is the always scary Lionel Atwill! She's lucky he doesn't mummify her on the pot.

The actor who plays her son, many years later, is pallid and odd looking. And the screenwriters (and censors) seem to have forgotten who is related to whom and how at the climax.

Dunne is charming but she has a terribly corny plot to work with. She ages well. When she is an older woman, going under the name of the title, she is tougher than usual. Maybe Barbara Stanywck could have done more with this role. But it's pretty doubtful.