Madame X

LANA TURNER knew a good part when she saw it. And there was even a courtroom scene that she could savor while she recalled her own real- life courtroom drama a decade earlier. She digs into the script with all of her being and gives one of the strongest performances of her career. Unfortunately, her co-star, John Forsythe, is all but invisible in a thankless role. But because the story was an old chestnut that had been done many times before, Hollywood seemed to turn its back on her work and she received not even a nomination for this, one of her best roles.

At 45, she was really too old for the early scenes depicting her as the young bride of a wealthy political candidate, but her make-up is expert and she looks radiant. She is soon to be undone by her mean mother-in-law, a youthful looking Constance Bennett (who, incidentally, just had a face lift before starting the film, much to Turner's distress). The plot has Turner getting involved with a playboy (Ricardo Montalban) who gets too serious before she decides to ditch him. She rejects him and an accidental fall down a steep stairway ends in his death and leads to the mother-in-law's scheme to get rid of the unwanted Turner by sending her into exile and making her give up custody of her young son.

The suds get thicker as Turner turns into a lonely woman who can never forget her past and the son she left behind. After an irrelevant episode with a concert pianist who wants to marry her (Curt Jurgens), she hits the skids and ends up boozing it up in Mexico with an unscrupulous Burgess Meredith. At this point in the film, Turner really does the kind of emoting that should have guaranteed at least an Oscar nomination. She pulls no punches in revealing with gut wrenching honesty what she has become under the influence of alcohol, bitter self-contempt and loneliness. It almost comes as a relief when she reaches for a gun and shoots Meredith when he plans to use her for his own ends.

Her acting is further strengthened by some courtroom scenes that show the ravages that her wasted life have done to her once lovely facade. And her expression in court, when she realizes that the young lawyer defending her is her own son, says more than a thousand words of script. There are moments throughout the film where she does some of her best acting since PEYTON PLACE.

She is wonderfully supported in the final scenes by some excellent work from Keir Dullea, who shows great sensitivity in his dealings with the woman he only knows as Madame X. His final line: "I loved her from the moment I first saw her" is guaranteed to make the eyes tear after Turner's emotional courtroom outburst. Constance Bennett is efficient and cold as her mother-in-law but John Forsythe has such an underwritten role as Turner's busy husband that his performance is as wooden as any he has ever given. Luckily for him, he found his niche on television.

By all means, if you're in the mood for a good tear-jerker and would like to see Lana at her best, this is one that you can't miss. The background score by Frank Skinner adds greatly to the story's effectiveness in wallowing in those soapy suds, reminding one of the days when Max Steiner would have been called upon to do exactly that for a Bette Davis film.

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.

Yes, this film is the "queen of all soap operas," but it has one thing going for it. And that's the acting of Lana Turner, who gives the performance of her career. If you don't shed a tear at the end of this film, you are made of stone!

The timing was not very good for "Madame X".It was the sixties and melodrama was not as popular as it was in the previous decade when Douglas Sirk dominated the genre.

David Lowell Rich seems to have studied Sirk's works ; by and large ,he is a good student.The Sirkesque cast and credits ,the huge desirable mansion where a distraught Turner runs after that fateful night ,the final trial -which is guaranteed to send the impressionable tearing through two entire boxes of Kleenex;Keir Dullea's speech for the defense when he praises the love a mother feels for her child and Turner herself crying "forgive me ,child, forgive me" make it the most tear-jerker trial in the whole history of cinema.

The well known story of Madame X (it's a remake) is some kind of adult fairy tale :there's the Prince Charming (John Forsythe), the marvelous child ,the cruel mother ("you're nothing but a shop girl!Should have stayed on the other side of the counter "): too bad Constance Benett's part is so underwritten;she is obviously an over possessive mother ,she seems to be in love with her son.Just see her look just after she's left the room after her first meeting with her new daughter-in-law.Overnight,the princess turns into "Cinderella" , "Donkey Skin" or "SnowWhite"

Lana Turner ,whose performance in "Imitation of life" (1959) was particularly good ,was certainly an underrated actress.Her best scenes are those when she plays opposite Constance Bennett then Keir Dullea.

Like this ?Try these....

If you are American.... Only Yesterday John Stahl 1933

If you are Italian.... Vedi Napoli e poi muori Riccardo Freda 1952

If you are English.... Waterloo bridge Mervyn Le Roy 1939

If you are French..... L'Entraineuse Albert Valentin 1938

I couldn't agree more ! I have always thought this was Lana supreme --- even better than "Peyton Place." Hollywood OWED it to Lana to nominate her greatest performance --- a terrible oversight. It's like nominating Doris for "Pillow Talk" INSTEAD of "Love Me or Leave Me." I will never forget seeing this movie at Fort Hood, Texas when I was in basic training in 1966. I bought the soundtrack LP immediately, and played it to death. It has never come out on CD. HELLO, Universal Music ??? Nice to see her fans supporting her, though ! And the movie is a luscious "guilty pleasure." It looks like the cast enjoyed making this film. I know Constance Bennett must have loved to have one more juicy role ! If you like the splashy, technicolor "wimmen's pitchas", as my sister would say, don't miss this !