Madame X

Madame X (1929)

The Newest and Greatest All-Talking Motion Picture

A young, unfaithful wife and mother is thrown out by her cold, unforgiving husband, the Attorney General of France. She is barred from ever seeing her three year old son again despite her earnest attempts to make amends. For many years the mother seeks refuge overseas and in Absinthe. In the end, her son, a young and promising lawyer unknowingly defends her in court. Ruth Chatterton gives a marvelous performance in this early talkie in her portrayal of Madame X.

Date of release
1929-08-17
TMDB
6.3 / 10 (10)
Runtime
1h 35m
Genres
Drama
Director
Lionel Barrymore

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 2

Madame X is a 1929 American pre-Code drama film directed by Lionel Barrymore and starring Ruth Chatterton as a fallen woman who longs to be reunited with her son. The film is based on the 1908 play Madame X by French playwright Alexandre Bisson (1848–1912).

Production

The story had been filmed in 1920 by Goldwyn Pictures with Pauline Frederick in the lead role. When Goldwyn merged with two other film studios to become MGM in 1924, the studio inherited the screen rights to the story.

No music is heard under the opening or closing credits of Madame X, as studios at the time expected local theater musicians to provide live accompaniment to the credits. Because keyboardists and orchestras were still working in the theaters in the late 1920s providing music for silent films still in distribution, live music was seen as a way to make the screening more of a special event and not a purely canned presentation.

Barrymore consciously avoided the song-and-dance formula that dominated early sound pictures, treating Madame X as a dramatic play. To emphasize the film's credentials as a serious drama and avoid any music-hall associations, MGM premiered the film in New York City's Sam H. Harris Theater, a legitimate stage venue that was rented for the occasion.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended