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
