Madame X is one of the great soap opera films of all time, popular back in the day, but by the sixties that genre had really run its course. But it is given one handsomely mounted production by Ross Hunter who was the last great Hollywood producer of such drama.
This film has a long pedigree. It is based on a play by Alexandre Bisson entitled La Femme X and in France it has been filmed quite a few times. In America Madame X was filmed twice. The original film was an early talkie and won an Oscar nomination for its star Ruth Chatterton. But that one was essentially a photographed stage play.
Come 1966 if nothing else Ross Hunter made this film move. All kinds of location shooting done here, from Fairfield County, Connecticut to Switzerland, to Mexico and back to New York. It's the 20 year saga of Holly Anderson who paid big time for a bad mistake.
Lana Turner played Anderson who when we meet here has just married Clayton Anderson from a very old line WASP family with a pedigree back to the pilgrims. John Forsythe is Clayton and in her last film, Constance Bennett is his mother Estelle. They have a son, but Forsythe's political career takes him away for long stretches and she begins an affair with playboy Ricardo Montalban. When Forsythe returns, Turner attempts to break it off with Montalban, but Montalban won't hear of it. During a struggle Montalban falls down a flight of stairs and is killed.
Bennett who's been keeping tabs on this whole business confronts Turner and tells her to fake her death and leave before scandal ruins the good Anderson name which now includes another generation. For the sake of her husband and son, Turner sacrifices and leaves.
The rest of the film is her wanderings until she gets involved with a petty crook played by Burgess Meredith and she kills him. She signs a written confession with an X hence the title.
I won't tell the rest but make sure the bathtowel is handy while watching this film. Lana Turner who knew plenty about scandal and sacrifice in her life, does pretty well by this role. The rest of the players are in support of her, almost in awe.
By this time soap opera had found its way on to the small screen, both in the afternoon and evening prime time. Films like Madame X just didn't do that well any more at the box office. A pity too, because you won't forget Turner's climatic scene with her grown son, played by Keir Dullea.
This film has a long pedigree. It is based on a play by Alexandre Bisson entitled La Femme X and in France it has been filmed quite a few times. In America Madame X was filmed twice. The original film was an early talkie and won an Oscar nomination for its star Ruth Chatterton. But that one was essentially a photographed stage play.
Come 1966 if nothing else Ross Hunter made this film move. All kinds of location shooting done here, from Fairfield County, Connecticut to Switzerland, to Mexico and back to New York. It's the 20 year saga of Holly Anderson who paid big time for a bad mistake.
Lana Turner played Anderson who when we meet here has just married Clayton Anderson from a very old line WASP family with a pedigree back to the pilgrims. John Forsythe is Clayton and in her last film, Constance Bennett is his mother Estelle. They have a son, but Forsythe's political career takes him away for long stretches and she begins an affair with playboy Ricardo Montalban. When Forsythe returns, Turner attempts to break it off with Montalban, but Montalban won't hear of it. During a struggle Montalban falls down a flight of stairs and is killed.
Bennett who's been keeping tabs on this whole business confronts Turner and tells her to fake her death and leave before scandal ruins the good Anderson name which now includes another generation. For the sake of her husband and son, Turner sacrifices and leaves.
The rest of the film is her wanderings until she gets involved with a petty crook played by Burgess Meredith and she kills him. She signs a written confession with an X hence the title.
I won't tell the rest but make sure the bathtowel is handy while watching this film. Lana Turner who knew plenty about scandal and sacrifice in her life, does pretty well by this role. The rest of the players are in support of her, almost in awe.
By this time soap opera had found its way on to the small screen, both in the afternoon and evening prime time. Films like Madame X just didn't do that well any more at the box office. A pity too, because you won't forget Turner's climatic scene with her grown son, played by Keir Dullea.