Madame X (1966)

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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.

"Madame X" is one of the best movies I have ever seen. I would recommend it to every movie goer, not just Lana's fans. She manages to portray to perfection a very, very complex character, and she certainly deserved an Oscar. I liked in particular her scenes with another fine actor, John Van Dreelen, who shared with Lana some very nice, romantic moments. The actor actually said in an interview that his chemistry with Lana was as good on-screen as it was off-screen, and this does a lot of good to the film. I also bought the magnificent book "Madame X", by Michael Avallone, which was published in 1966. I recommend it to everyone, because it was adapted after the original screenplay of Jean Holloway. Thanks to the book, I managed to discover the scenes that were cut from the film, such as the scene where Holly is trying to get a job at an expensive French shop, and also a scene where Christian, the pianist (Van Dreelen), is giving her a hint that they should marry, because the whole press was discussing about them during his concert tour. So, in order to avoid gossip and scandal, he thought they ought to marry. This was his first proposal to her, while they were driving an automobile - and that is why in one of the sequences with them in the car, Lana's character seems preoccupied about something. The novel reveals that she was very much in love with this artist, who became her God or guardian angel, but whom she had to leave, so that neither he, nor her first husband (played by John Forsythe) would find out who and where she really is. A great book and a great film! I bought the original DVD from France and it was an excellent purchase. The music is also superb, and the soundtrack was released separately in 1967. I only wish there were kept more scenes from "Madame X", because the film is much too short to understand the complexity of the plot. Still, I highly recommend it, even if it is a very sad film, a real tear-jerker.

This time, in addition to being a glamour puss, Lana gets to deconstruct her image and replace it with a different artifice, which is a lot more fascinating than what's going on with the story. Though the ending is pure tearjerker, it doesn't compare to the waterworks at the finale of "Imitation of Life." And for a juicy wallow in unintentional humor, you can't beat "Portrait In Black" (Navigating the coast highway without ever having driven a car!). But there's enough here to feast your eyes on while plausibility is being stretched to its limit. Though the film purports to cover about twenty years, Miss Turner (and everyone else) looks pure 1966 in every shot. But that's the point of watching this film – endearingly entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

1966's "Madame X" was a second version of the original starring the Oscar nominated Ruth Chatterton in a memorable unforgettable performance.This sudsy story of a woman who accidentally killed her former lover and lived to regret it every day of her life pulls out all the stops. It's as if Lana Turner had to wear a scarlet letter for what she had done for the rest of her life.Having fled the scene thanks to her vicious mother-in-law, played with relish by Constance Bennett, Turner returns years later and is defended by her now grown up son, Keir Dullea. He doesn't know why, but Dullea is drawn to this mysterious woman. He had been told years before that his mother was dead.The film is convincing because of the wonderful cast. Lana Turner has never been better and Constance Bennett's final performance before her death in 1965 of a stroke, is heartfelt and filled with passion.That last scene is absolutely gut-wrenching. You will feel for the characters. A truly remarkable film done superbly by a fine cast.