Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

Madame X

Play trailer Poster for Madame X 1929 1h 35m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
Tomatometer 2 Reviews 25% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
Jacqueline (Ruth Chatterton) leaves her rich but cold husband, and he forbids her from seeing their young son. She then takes up with no-good gambler Laroque (Ullrich Haupt), who forces her to join in his crimes. Years later, Laroque is killed, Jacqueline is put to trial for his murder and her lawyer is her son, Raymond (Raymond Hackett), who doesn't recognize her. Jacqueline, in an effort to hide her shameful identity from her son, abstains from speaking in court, which could spell her doom.

Where to Watch

Madame X

Critics Reviews

View More
Walter Brown Hartford Courant 05/27/2021
Miss Chatterton gives a really magnificent performance m the talkie made from the famous melodrama of the year gone by proving her excellence in an Intensely emotional role. Go to Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com 04/26/2012
B-
Ruth Chatterton got Best Actress nomination and Lionel Barrymore a directing nod for the first talkie version of the old sentimental play about an all-suffering mother. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
12/11/2021 The story had been filmed before by Goldwyn before the MGM merger. Barrymore avoided the song and dance formula treating it as a dramatic play. See more steve d 07/23/2020 Well done all things considered. See more 05/08/2014 I tried to watch this several times, but couldn't make it past the first ten minutes. The sound quality is bad, so it is difficult to understand what is being said without closed captioning (which was not available on TCM). The acting is extremely melodramatic, which makes the dialog even more difficult to understand in the sing-song mid-Atlantic accent that was expected of theatrical actors at the time. So - my rating is based on the first ten minutes, where I caught about 10% of the dialog and had no idea what was going on other than the fact that everyone seemed quite distraught. It made me put my hand to my forehead and audibly sigh with despair and overt facial expression. See more 02/21/2014 Stiff and creaky original version of the much remade weeper. Chatterton is too theatrical in her role to buy in her later scenes of dissipation. Watch the more enjoyable Lana Turner version instead. See more 02/19/2014 "Ruth Chatterton got Best Actress nomination and Lionel Barrymore a directing nod for the first talkie version of the old sentimental play about an all-suffering mother." See more 12/11/2013 Ho boy. It's amazing that this story gets done and done and done over and over again. You would think that this not very subtle play of coincidence would get boring. This is the one that started it all. Such a shame. See more Read all reviews
Madame X

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

View All

Lionel Barrymore

Director

Ruth Chatterton

Jacqueline Floriot

Lewis Stone

Louis Floriot

Raymond Hackett

Raymond Floriot

Holmes Herbert

Noel

Eugenie Besserer

Rose
View All

Madame X

Madame X (1929) Madame X (1929) Madame X (1929) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis Jacqueline (Ruth Chatterton) leaves her rich but cold husband, and he forbids her from seeing their young son. She then takes up with no-good gambler Laroque (Ullrich Haupt), who forces her to join in his crimes. Years later, Laroque is killed, Jacqueline is put to trial for his murder and her lawyer is her son, Raymond (Raymond Hackett), who doesn't recognize her. Jacqueline, in an effort to hide her shameful identity from her son, abstains from speaking in court, which could spell her doom.
Director
Lionel Barrymore
Distributor
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Production Co
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 17, 1929, Original
Runtime
1h 35m
Most Popular at Home Now