BREAK Out the BIG Crying TOWEL!!

Madame X (1966) ~ Lana Turner

French playwright Alexandre Bisson's melodramatic tearjerker entitled La Femme X has been filmed many times before and since but it is the 1966 American version of Madame X starring Lana Turner as Holly Anderson that grabs and holds viewers until the very end.

A woman married to a wealthy socialite and diplomat, played by John Forsythe, is compromised by the accidental death of a renowned playboy who had romantically pursued her. Forced by her mother-in-law, she fakes her own death and assumes a new identity to save the reputation of her husband and infant son. As she wanders the world, she begins using Absinthe along with alcohol to try to forget her heartbreak.

In her despair and under the influence of an unsavory man, Holly eventually returns to the city of her downfall where she murders her blackmailer (Burgess Meredith) who threatens to expose her past.

Having fallen on hard times, Holly is represented at court by a young attorney from the public defenders office. Unaware of her true identity, the young lawyer assigned to defend her is her own son Clay Anderson Jr (Keir Dullea), now grown to manhood. Hoping to continue to protect her son, she refuses to give her real name and is known to the court as the defendant, "Madame X."

The 1966 screen version is beautifully filmed with lavishly detailed sets and elaborate dramatics. The acting is first rate throughout the movie but it is the harrowing performance of Lana Turner that keeps the unlikely storyline from unraveling. Thanks to her - and to a lesser degree the talented supporting cast - Madame X is a compelling movie experience that rises a notch above your run-of-the-mill sob-fest. (****) 4-Star Rating