Madame X (1966) [VHS]

Madame X (1966) [VHS]
by David Lowell Rich

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Product details

Actor: Burgess Meredith, John Forsythe, John Van Dreelen, Lana Turner, Ricardo Montalban
Director: David Lowell Rich
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 100 minutes
Release Date: 1998-01-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Universal Studios
Studio: Universal Studios

VHS Movie Reviews of Madame X (1966) [VHS]

Movie Review: Lana Turner's final great movie role
Summary: 4 Stars

Lana Turner's last major hurrah was this sleek update of the classic Alexandre Bisson play, "Madame X.", previously filmed in 1929 starring Ruth Chatterton (and again in 1937 with Gladys George). Produced by Ross Hunter (the man who had dragged Ms Turner back into box-office paydirt with "Imitation of Life" and "Portrait in Black"), this tried-and-true melodrama was the perfect material for Turner's acting talents.

In MADAME X. (1966), Lana Turner plays Holly, the vivacious young wife of up-and-coming diplomat Clay Anderson (John Forsythe). Holly has it all, but Clay's globe-trotting lifestyle unfortunately allows Holly to fall prey to the advances of notorious ladies' man Phil Benton (Ricardo Montalban). During a bitter fight where Holly tries to leave Phil once and for all, he accidentally falls down the stairs. Faced with going to trial for his "murder", Holly's icy mother-in-law (Constance Bennett) forces the bewildered Holly to stage her death, and stay out of Clay's life forever. Many years pass before Holly, now a drunken, broken old woman, emerges in New York, once again accused of murder. But this time the past is more than a memory away...

In MADAME X., Lana Turner proves (sadly really for the final time) just how wonderful she could be when the material was first-class. Holly was reportedly one of her favourite roles, and I'm sure she held the experience in fond memory (especially as she later waded through such dreck as 1969's "The Big Cube" and 1980's "Witches' Brew"). Constance Bennett is splendid as the witchy mother-in-law (she sadly passed away shortly before the movie was released); Burgess Meredith is appropriately slimy as the blackmailer trying to ride Holly's coat-tails. Keir Dullea co-stars as Holly's adult son.

A classic, ultra-glossy tearjerker.

Movie Review: An Outdated Schmaltzy Film
Summary: 1 Stars

So many people seem to like this film - Madame X. I don't. I 've seen
it on television and am glad I never saw it in a theater in 1966.
The cast is excellent (Lana Turner, John Forsythe, Burgess Meredith,
Ricardo Montalban, Joan Whats-Her-Name)but the plot and the schmaltzy
dialogue plus the tear-jerking conclusion leave me laughing and that's it.
Why was this movie made ? And as late as 1966. This is a 1940'-50's film,
in my opinion, and outdated by the Sixties. But so many people seem to like
it. Sentimentality. Sob, sob, sob......You can have Madame X. This should have been made as a farce....

Movie Review: Golden oldie!!
Summary: 4 Stars

This is the type of movie we should all be watching.. good story and has a lesson to it. A real "tear-jerker."

Movie Review: Imitation of Laff
Summary: 3 Stars

A lot of people love this movie and so do I--but probably not for the same reason. Not for nothing was this the last gasp of the Ross Hunter tearjerkers in the "Imitation of Life"/"Back Street" mode. By the mid-Sixties, this type of hokum was far more comic than melodramatic--just look at the ridiculous casting, which includes a 40-something Lana Turner (who'd just played Sandra Dee's mother/stepmother in her last few pictures) as a young bride. . . having her first child! Surrounding her with inappropriate actors like bland John Forsythe (as her middle-aged ambitious "young" husband) and veteran Constance Bennett (who somehow looks more like Lana's younger sister than her mother-in-law) didn't help realism. Cheesy production values and anacronisms (all the women are dressed in the height of Sixties middlebrow fashions--in scenes taking place thirty years earlier!) just add to the fun. A real howl, especially when an Oscar-hungry Turner goes to pot in the final reels. You'll cry alright--with laughter.

Movie Review: One of the Greats!
Summary: 5 Stars

If you're looking for a rainy afternoon or late night tearjerker, bursting at the seams with impeccable style, glamour and delicious disaster, this is your film. Only Lana Turner can deliver such wistful heartbreak in the finest gowns and jewels one instant, and next be the tragic victim of misfortune, suffering as only those who fall from on high can know. To call it melodrama would be an insult, this is classic cinema, with Hollywood royalty.

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