User reviews

Madame X is a film best enjoyed by baby boomers and for those who can understand a mother's sacrificial love for her child and family. I am a romantic at heart and I always cry when I see this movie. This movie is not intended for children. I truly love this film. It is much, much better than the 1937 version of Madame X. The movie took a few minutes to draw me in. But I was hooked once bad things started to happen. I love the last scenes in the movie. This is where I always cry. Lana Turner was perfect in this role. Lana Turner's transformation was incredible. Beauty becomes a beast with a deep love hidden in her heart and then transforms into a paragon of motherhood. The director used his camera and lighting well. The musical background is perfect. This is a late night film or a rainy day film where you can blame your wet eyes at the end on the rain. No popcorn here. Just a glass of wine to enjoy this movie with.

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.

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 !

I admit that the first time I saw this film, I had gone through a box of Kleenex by the end. The second time around, it was a full-length soap opera, but a really good one. And the third time, I thought how silly it was. But all in all, I have to admit that Ms. Turner gave a beautiful and moving performance, and worked well with Ricardo Montalban. In fact, I would have liked to see them work together more.

As one reviewer said, Ms. Turner is supposed to be of the lower class, but that is hard to imagine. Perhaps if Shelly Winters played the role, yes. But Ms. Turner to me, rather then being of lower class, gives the impression of being too beautiful, too playful and too liberal to be part of what appears to be a powerfully conservative and old money family. And realizing this, she descends into that lower class,not because she is, but because her broken self-esteem tells her that is where she aught to be. This self-destruction is more of what makes this film interesting, and to me makes her reuniting with her son almost irrelevant. Overall, when I think of how unimportant this film is, there are certain moments that are hard to forget, and for this reason I give it a 6+.

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.

Lana Turner, party gal supreme, was a fine actress whose personal life detracted from her fine on-camera work. "The Bad and The Beautiful" "Peyton Place" "Imitation Of Life" and this film "Madame X" are all examples of fine acting. Lana Turner after the Stopanato Murder was given a new lease on her career by Ross Hunter at Universal, and the result was "Imitation of Life" a huge success for Universal and Turner who had an ownership percentage in that hit. Hunter and Turner and Universal reprised in "Portrait In Black" and hit another great home run with a remake of "Madame X" also at Universal. Simply put Lana Turner is outstanding in this film and the last 30 minutes of Madame X has Lana Turner performing as only the best actresses could. Lana Turner should have been nominated, but I gather her party ways, the hangover of the Stompanto murder, etc..left a sour taste with some Academy voters. Fine support by Keir Dullea and terrific seeing Constance Bennett in the role of Lana's wicked Mother In Law. Ms Bennett died soon after filming.

This is a fine Film with Lana Turner robbed of a Nomination.

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!

"Madame X" is one of the best movies I have ever seen. I would recommend it to every movie goer, not just Lana's fans. She manages to portray to perfection a very, very complex character, and she certainly deserved an Oscar. I liked in particular her scenes with another fine actor, John Van Dreelen, who shared with Lana some very nice, romantic moments. The actor actually said in an interview that his chemistry with Lana was as good on-screen as it was off-screen, and this does a lot of good to the film. I also bought the magnificent book "Madame X", by Michael Avallone, which was published in 1966. I recommend it to everyone, because it was adapted after the original screenplay of Jean Holloway. Thanks to the book, I managed to discover the scenes that were cut from the film, such as the scene where Holly is trying to get a job at an expensive French shop, and also a scene where Christian, the pianist (Van Dreelen), is giving her a hint that they should marry, because the whole press was discussing about them during his concert tour. So, in order to avoid gossip and scandal, he thought they ought to marry. This was his first proposal to her, while they were driving an automobile - and that is why in one of the sequences with them in the car, Lana's character seems preoccupied about something. The novel reveals that she was very much in love with this artist, who became her God or guardian angel, but whom she had to leave, so that neither he, nor her first husband (played by John Forsythe) would find out who and where she really is. A great book and a great film! I bought the original DVD from France and it was an excellent purchase. The music is also superb, and the soundtrack was released separately in 1967. I only wish there were kept more scenes from "Madame X", because the film is much too short to understand the complexity of the plot. Still, I highly recommend it, even if it is a very sad film, a real tear-jerker.

By 1965 - 66 when this film was made, Douglas Sirk, director of arguably the best 1950's Hollywood melodramas, had made his final (and many would claim his masterpiece) feature Imitation of Life which starred Lana Turner. He returned to Europe, retiring from full - time movie-making. However his frequent Hollywood producing partner Ross Hunter was still in a mid-career stage. Madame X represents an attempt by both Hunter and Turner to replicate the Sirk magic, creating a sumptuous melodrama, that employed many of Sirk's regular hall marks; predominantly bright colours, elaborate costumes, thoughtful lighting, a generous budget which all serve to embellish a love story fraught with all manner of problems. The big difference though with Madame X and Sirk's work, is that the man himself wasn't there to apply his distinctive and sophisticated directorial approach to this remake of earlier film adaptions of a French play. Journeyman film and TV director David Lowell Rich took up the reins with very ordinary results.

Lana Turner fans will claim the lead title role, as one of her greatest performances. She does dominate the screen, perhaps because she is in 95% of all the scenes. The best I can say is that she brings an extreme theatrical perspective to the part. It is interesting seeing a young- looking Keir Dullea taking a fairly substantial support role as Turner's adult lawyer son.

The main problem with the film is the largely unbelievable plot-line combined with some, at times. dialogue that can only be described as risible and support characters which are simply caricatures of real people. With the greatest respect to both Turner and co-star John Forsythe, both look too old for their respective characters. He, ostensibly as a young, up and coming diplomat/politician and she, supposedly eager to start a family (but looking all of her 45 years of age). The narrative involves adultery, calculating, manipulative mothers-in-law, accidental and faked deaths, shootings, court room dramas and the like, all very much filled with melodramatic overtones. But missing is the underlying, inferred social criticisms and quietly raising of social justice issues, which always occurred in the best of Sirk's films.

Nevertheless fans of Turner's (and there are plenty) and soap operas in general, will undoubtedly still find plenty to keep themselves entertained and the odd opportunity to break out the tissues, in this fairly low-brow and somewhat dated offering.

She may have excelled in many high profile Hollywood classics, too numerous to mention, but this (her last major film role) was Lana Turner's finest hour. One of the best movie melodramas ever made, this David Lowell Rich masterpiece from 1966 contains all the ingredients to hold the viewer's attention from beginning to end. While always competent,Turner like many screen beauties was often used for more decorative purposes by Directors dazzled by her obvious sex appeal. In this Role,Lana Turner proves that she was more than mere adornment and in fact was one of the best screen actresses of all time. Her performance veers from trophy wife to temptress, femme fatale through to wronged woman and Turner is magnificent throughout. Perhaps sensing that in her forties she would be unlikely to get another meaty leading role, Turner literally gives her all in the part of Holly Anderson. Her beauty for once merely compliments the role for which she is required to appear in the second half of the movie as a haggard, depressed drug addicted victim. The film brilliantly utilizes all possible directorial techniques to extract every semblance of emotion from both actress and viewer. Like Turner's most successful movie, Douglas Sirk's 1959 masterpiece, 'Imitation of Life' and Michael Gordon's 'Portrait in Black' co-starring a young and menacing Anthony Quinn (which it has been paired with on DVD release) this film is a masterpiece of melodrama. Lana Turner's performance cements her legendary status and is among those great screen performances where a best actress Oscar was merited. As Hollywood swan-songs go, this must rank as one of the best farewell performances ever by a major movie star.WARNING: Kleenex mandatory for female and yes even male viewers.

This movie happened to be on while I was trying to slumber. It caught my eye and had me stay up way too late. I thought the acting was superb. The movie was so well acted it made me cry at 2am!

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

This time, in addition to being a glamour puss, Lana gets to deconstruct her image and replace it with a different artifice, which is a lot more fascinating than what's going on with the story. Though the ending is pure tearjerker, it doesn't compare to the waterworks at the finale of "Imitation of Life." And for a juicy wallow in unintentional humor, you can't beat "Portrait In Black" (Navigating the coast highway without ever having driven a car!). But there's enough here to feast your eyes on while plausibility is being stretched to its limit. Though the film purports to cover about twenty years, Miss Turner (and everyone else) looks pure 1966 in every shot. But that's the point of watching this film – endearingly entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

That Lana Turner played her beauty down so much in this movie, that she acted like a dream - this is the real Lana Turner. She was marvelous. This movie is a heart breaker. That darling son that defends her, not knowing she was his mother, and yet, had an instinct? This is Hollywood and Lana Turner at their finest. If you want true soap opera and none of the tripe, go for this. John Forsythe, Constance Bennett? Even they are tearing up at Lana's performance. Marvelous is all I can say. Marvelous!!!! I loved Lana Turner when she was younger, but her later movies such as this and Peyton Place? She was and will always be fantastic.

Holly Parker, a beautiful woman, is married to an up and coming politician with a bright future ahead of him. Holly, who is bored with her husband being away from home so much, becomes the lover of Phil Benton, a playboy, who wants her for himself. Holly, realizes her error and goes to break up with Phil, but a terrible accident happens where he ends falling to his own death in his apartment. Thanks to her conniving mother-in-law, who realizes she's a liability for her son's political career, Holly is given a choice she can't refuse, a new identity and money, in exchange for her supposed death by drowning.

What follows is Holly's adventure as a single woman who misses her son terribly, but one that knows she can't go back to her old life. An aristocratic pianist, Christian Torben, wants Holly, but she can't commit to his life style, and what follows is her own descent to hell when she drowns her sorrows in absinthe, a potent drink she loves. She ends up in Mexico where the scheming Don Sullivan discovers who she really is; he tries to blackmail her, but she is determined not to have her identity revealed to her former husband, or the son she loved more than anything else.

The final section of the movie is a court trial in which, her own son, Clayton Anderson Jr., is an assistant D.A. assigned to defend her. During the trial Clayton Anderson Sr. and his mother come to see the young man in action, but they can't connect this defeated woman to Holly. Holly gets to know the identity of her young lawyer at the end.

This melodrama was a vehicle for Lana Turner, who saw in it a great opportunity in which to excel. Directed by David Lowell Rich, it follows the star from a glamorous beginning to a tragic end. The only problem was that Ms. Turner's co-star, Constance Bennett, looked as young as her own daughter-in-law in the early scenes. As Neil Doyle has pointed out in his commentary, Ms. Bennett, a veteran actress, had undergone plastic surgery herself, making her look better than the star.

The other major flaw of this version is one of credibility. Even though Holly is supposed to have aged with her heavy drinking, she looks about the same, so it's a surprise when the old Mrs. Anderson herself, who is in court all the time can't even recognize Holly, or for that matter, Old Clayton himself doesn't seem to know this woman was his beloved wife. But that's the stuff that makes this type of story what they are. "Madame X" is what it is: a tear jerker at its best. They don't come any better than this, so don't see it without the tissues!

Lana Turner is accused of murder when her lover, Ricardo Montalban, falls down a flight of stairs during a fight. The drama doesn't stop their because her attorney doesn't realized that he's actually her son! At another point, she also tries to fake her own death, if you didn't realize you were in one of producer Ross Hunter's lushly produced melodramas. What I found most interesting watching this film is comparing it to the Douglas Sirk directed Ross Hunter productions (i.e. "All that Heaven Allows," "Imitation fo Life," "There's Always Tomorrow," etc.), which gave me a much greater appreciation for what Sirk brought to his films. Sirks' films and "Madame X" are equally soapy of material, but Sirk's use of lighting, staging, and camera movement are so much better than what director David Lowell Rich does behind the camera here. Rich was primarily a TV director and the blandness of his direction is plainly on display with unoriginal montages, weak use of dramatic zooms, and most importantly a lack of any meaningful subtext. Sirks' film always had something to say, but "Madame X" seemed purely surface level. Overall, this is only worth watching for the lush production values and for the cast, which besides Turner and Montalban includes John Forsythe and Burgess Meredith.

Madam X is the film which should have given Lana Turner an Oscar! This is her best film that she had made and if you watch this film you will know why. She expresses so much emotion without any words just by the looks she gives in the court room scene alone. Lana ages from a young women to an older women so believably. It is not only the makeup she wears to show her aging...it is her performance. The rest of the cast did a very good job...but this is Lana's film and she holds it on her own by herself. If you enjoy tear-jerker's...this will deliver the tears because this movie will move you to those emotions. Madam X is a good film on it's own, but Lana's performance made it a wonderful film.

As I read through all the reviews for this film, I was shocked by two things--that people thought it was a good film and that they thought it was a drama. Considering how over the top melodramatic it is, I really thought it was a comedy--albeit an unintentional one! The film starts with Holly (Lana Turner--who was too old for the part) marrying John--a very wealthy man who has ambitions to go into politics. At first, they are happy but after a while John's ambitions take him away from home--a lot. In the meantime, she spends time with another man (Ricardo Montalban) but their relationship is quite chaste. However, when he slips and falls down some stairs to his death, Holly's mother-in-law (Constance Bennett) blackmails her into running off and faking her death, as the mother-in-law THINKS Holly killed her lover! I have no idea why, but Holly agrees--and most of the rest of the film is spent watching Turner show a wide variety of pained looks--ones that look like she's dealing with a bad case of the cramps. All the while, you CONSTANTLY hear the most ridiculously overbearing and ridiculous music. In fact, clearly the music is the worst thing about the film. But you also can't ignore the last half hour--one of the most ridiculously sentimental and stupid half hours in film history (you've just gotta hear Keir Dullea's speech to believe it)! Overall, this is a glossy and beautiful looking bad movie...in a kitschy sort of way. I frankly found much of it laugh out loud funny because the film took itself so seriously but was so seriously bad in the process.

By the way, the doctor's comments about absinthe, though believed at the time, are utter nonsense. In fact, the wine industry created all these rumors about absinthe causing brain abnormalities and death! In recent years, it's once again been legalized because it's a potent yet harmless liquor.