La faute de Madeleine Claudet

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.

Talk about a tour-de-force! I lost track of how many times I said to the television screen, "Give her her Oscar!" while watching The Sin of Madelon Claudet. Everyone knows how critical I am of the Academy Awards, but Helen Hayes absolutely deserved her Best Actress trophy. In her first talking picture, she's given an incredible range of situations and emotions, and she convinces everyone that they're watching her life instead of her performance.

Helen starts the film as a good girl, but gets corrupted by an evil male influence. Her boyfriend Neil Hamilton convinces her to run away from home and live in sin with him, but when he's called away to America to care for his sick father, she fears he'll never return. He doesn't, and Helen has a baby. In a touching scene full of more realism than you'd expect in 1931, Helen refuses to hold her newborn, muttering, "I wish it were dead." One of the nurses places the baby in Helen's arms, and Helen looks upon her child. She falls in love, and for the rest of the film, she sacrifices everything for her son.

From refusing to give up her child so she can make a respectable marriage, to becoming wealthy Lewis Stone's mistress, everything she does is for her child. She hides her son on the side while living the high life with Lewis, coming to visit him secretly and supporting him with pocket money Lewis gives her. That arrangement doesn't last long, unfortunately, and Helen is forced to live through many more tragedies before the end of the movie.

The Sin of Madelon Claudet is a cautionary tale for good little girls. Your life can be ruined by running off with your boyfriend and living in sin. While that message feels a little melodramatic by today's standards, it's actually still true. One little mistake that feels harmless or exciting at the time can lead to an unbearable chain of events; perhaps the timelessness is what makes this film a classic. Helen's performance is fantastic, and you'll get to see Robert Young in one of his first parts, the one that propelled him to stardom. You'll also get to see Alan Hale, Charles Winninger, and Jean Hersholt in small roles. And who would have thought the usually tired Lewis Stone would play someone incredibly sweet and romantic?

Or words to that effect sprang from the snarling mouth of Helen Hayes, anonymous mother of Robert Young in this Award-winning old-timer. Having hit rock bottom, Madelon was caught picking a guy's pocket in a dive bar. As she was leaving he discovered the scam and began to chase her, whereupon she grabbed a beer bottle, smashed it on a table and uttered the defiant words above. The scene is worth the price of admission.

Helen Hayes?? The First Lady Of The American Theater?? Elwood P.Dowd's aunt in "Harvey"?? After I picked myself up off the floor, I realized why she was awarded Best Actress Oscar for her vivid portrayal of a 'fallen' woman who has bad luck and no luck with men. Predictably, she sacrifices everything for her son (Robert Young), who does not know her. Although this has since become a recurrent theme in Hollywood ("Stella Dallas", "Madame X", etc.), this may have been one of the first of it's kind. Helen Hayes puts it over in style in a bravura performance, winning an Oscar in 1931. Fans of the Golden Age, this one is a must.

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.