I must admit up front that the story of "Madame X" is one that never particularly interested me. I've seen some remakes and found them all to be very old fashioned and silly. I am pretty sure back in the day, however, these weepy films worked well with the audiences...particularly because there are many similar stories of selfless mothers such as this one and "So Big". So, at the outset, I need you to know I am not a fan of the selfless mother genre. Additionally, this version of the story is hampered even more because it's very old fashioned in style and the sound quality quite poor. The dialog, direction and look of the movie also seem dated...very dated.
As for this 1929 film, it's directed by Lionel Barrymore of all people! Apparently sound pictures were new to MGM and Barrymore was interested in sound and they let him direct the picture. After all, he'd been a director a decade earlier--before he'd become more famous as an actor.
The story begins in France--which is odd since not one of the principle actors sounds the least bit French! Jacqueline (Ruth Chatterton) is estranged from her husband Floriot (Lewis Stone), as apparently she was caught cheating on him and he tossed her out...and won't let her see their son. It seems that Floriot has told the boy his mother is dead and she begs him to let her see the boy...to no avail. What's next is pretty hard to believe, but it's a saga involving Jacqueline losing herself to drink and redeeming herself in order to help her son.
My feelings about this one are rather negative. I am not a huge fan of the story and the film quality is poor in so many ways. Watch it if you'd like...but you could do a lot better.
As for this 1929 film, it's directed by Lionel Barrymore of all people! Apparently sound pictures were new to MGM and Barrymore was interested in sound and they let him direct the picture. After all, he'd been a director a decade earlier--before he'd become more famous as an actor.
The story begins in France--which is odd since not one of the principle actors sounds the least bit French! Jacqueline (Ruth Chatterton) is estranged from her husband Floriot (Lewis Stone), as apparently she was caught cheating on him and he tossed her out...and won't let her see their son. It seems that Floriot has told the boy his mother is dead and she begs him to let her see the boy...to no avail. What's next is pretty hard to believe, but it's a saga involving Jacqueline losing herself to drink and redeeming herself in order to help her son.
My feelings about this one are rather negative. I am not a huge fan of the story and the film quality is poor in so many ways. Watch it if you'd like...but you could do a lot better.