Madame X

Released Mar 3, 1966

1h 39m

Drama

List

50%

6 Reviews

Tomatometer

80%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Holly Parker (Lana Turner) is married to high-powered diplomat Clay Anderson (John Forsythe), but finds that her attention wanders when he's away. She starts an affair with a wealthy bachelor (Ricardo Montalban), but her life unravels when he dies unexpectedly. Her mother-in-law (Constance Bennett) advises Holly to leave Clay and their baby and start a new life. Years later, when a petty criminal (Burgess Meredith) tries to blackmail Holly, who is now a prostitute, things get even worse for her.

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Audience Member

U have seen this 25 times and cried every time Lana gives a tour de force performance, everyone who had problems with their mother growing up should see this...with Imitation of Life and Peyton Place Lana Turner owns the concept of Melodrama in its most noble sense.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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Audience Member

This movie is incredible! I was sobbing at the end. Lana Turners performance was absolutely fan

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

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Audience Member

One of the more heartbreaking films I've ever seen. It started off slow, but things later get interesting. Outstanding performances from both Lana Turner and Keir Dullea. (First and only viewing - 2/8/2019)

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

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Audience Member

The best courtroom movie ever made!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

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Audience Member

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.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Audience Member

Yet another retelling of the 19th century tale, richly directed with a strong cast.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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David Lowell Rich

Director

Lana Turner

Holly Parker

John Forsythe

Clayton Anderson

Keir Dullea

Clayton Anderson Jr.

Constance Bennett

Estelle Anderson

Ricardo Montalban

Phil Benton

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Pauline Kael

McCall's

Madame X is so excruciating not only because the actors and actresses do not embody what they’re supposed to, but because the movie depends on the conventions of the M-G-M style of the ’forties. It is spiritually dedicated to the worst of old Hollywood.

Sep 20, 2023

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

Madame X is an emotional Grand Guignol, a hysterical soap opera that would end up being the final and potentially most memorable hour of Lana Turner.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 13, 2020

Full Review

Raquel Stecher

Out of the Past

worth watching for the fine cast of performers but the story is tiresome. There is no respite from all the suffering Holly has to go through and that made me feel exhausted by the end of that 1 hour and 40 minute journey.

Jul 6, 2019

Full Review

Wendy Michener

Maclean's Magazine

Lana Turner's stinker to remember.

Jun 27, 2019

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Rob Nelson

City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul

Completed the same year as the star's first face-lift, Madame X viciously spans two dozen years, inspiring one gossip columnist of the time to joke that Constance Bennett looked younger without makeup than Turner did with it.

Aug 21, 2009

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Director David Lowell Rich, a television director, helms it as if to make it as archaic, sudsy and corny as humanly possible.

Rated: B-

Jun 17, 2006

Full Review

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Synopsis

Holly Parker (Lana Turner) is married to high-powered diplomat Clay Anderson (John Forsythe), but finds that her attention wanders when he's away. She starts an affair with a wealthy bachelor (Ricardo Montalban), but her life unravels when he dies unexpectedly. Her mother-in-law (Constance Bennett) advises Holly to leave Clay and their baby and start a new life. Years later, when a petty criminal (Burgess Meredith) tries to blackmail Holly, who is now a prostitute, things get even worse for her.

Director: David Lowell Rich
Production Co: Universal/Universal Int
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 3, 1966, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 30, 2016
Runtime: 1h 39m

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