zetes Corny melodrama starring Lana Turner, whom I generally don't like much. It has some good moments, though, and the final act is surprisingly touching, as silly as the twist is. Turner plays a woman of low class married into high society, her new husband a politician (John Forsythe). She's often left alone, though, and she soon attracts the unwanted attentions of Ricardo Montelban. He dies accidentally, but her mother-in-law assumes she murdered her lover and Turner gets banished. Later on, she hooks up with Burgess Meredith and has a drunken, semi-criminal relationship with him. He ends up dead, too, and then the son that she abandoned (now played by Keir Dullea) defends her in court, never knowing who she really is. The best scenes are the ones with Meredith. Yes, this is a movie where Lana Turner kills both Khan and the Penguin, but it's less campy than one might think (unlike Turner's following film, the hilarious acid trip movie The Big Cube). I think some just genuinely like the melodrama. I don't, but, in the end, it's not too bad a film.

Paulo_Clemente This is a good movie, I liked very much, specially because Lana Turner has an amazing performance in this movie, every step of the movie she is great , she can make you feel exactly what she's feeling.Holly is a middle class woman marries a rich man, soon she's faced with constant trips from her husband Clay. That takes her to engage in a relationship with Phil, but then things go wrong and to protect the sun and grandson her mother-in-law blackmails her to disappear. After that she starts to sink , missing her son and feeling guilty about her previous behavior . That's when she's forced to murder a blackmailer who threatens to expose her and faces trial.This is a real drama , a movie where even she did some wrong things you find yourself hoping that on the end she comes out OK.

AlanSKaufman Life is tough, then you die. That old saying forms the foundation of the film Madame X whose popularity suffers because we don't like sad features. Yet this overwhelming tale will haunt you forever.The original 1966 trailer, the packaging on the 2008 DVD, and the opening credits give away a supposedly major surprise at the concluding portion of this swiftly moving melodrama. We learn that Lana Turner's character Holly will stand trial for murdering a man, and her lawyer is none other than the grown son she was forced to abandon when he was a young child. She becomes Madame X to hide from the sins of her past.There is a reason for this early revelation to the viewers. Holly initially doesn't know his adult identity and he is unaware of hers. Learning who he is, she is understandably shocked. Since we already know the truth, we are able to fully focus on her mental state instead of withdrawing into our own inner feelings.The trial was filmed during the heart of the civil rights battle. Despite Holly and the deceased and the jurors all being white, her attorney employs an argument favored during that time - jury nullification, meaning that a person should be acquitted even though technically breaking the law, if a higher purpose is served. He justifies her killing the man not in self defense, because the man was blackmailing her and threatening the welfare of her son. This is analogous to a battered housewife killing her tormentor while he sleeps, not legal, but nevertheless legitimate in the eyes of many citizens.We never learn the verdict because Holly dies before it is delivered. We the viewer are again free to fully focus on her death as she, in the arms of her son, comes to grips with what had happened in her life. Her last prerogative is to remain Madame X so he will not inherit her sins. In his heart, he knows she is his mother.You cry buckets of tears, not precisely for this fictional character, rather "in the name of the best within us" as Ayn Rand described in her novel Atlas Shrugged. There, Cherryl Taggart, a shop girl struggling to do the right thing, got in over her head and drowned herself. Holly was also a shop girl struggling to do the right thing, got in over her head and drank herself to death.In addition to Turner, fine performances are rendered by John Forsythe, Constance Bennett, Ricardo Montalban, Burgess Meredith, and Keir Dullea. Madame X offers exquisite theme music, delivers much food for thought, and can provide you a catharsis more valuable than numerous psychiatric sessions.You'll be grateful for this fabulous film.

jotix100 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!