Madame X

After a romantic indiscretion, a Parisian wife is thrown out by her eminent but unbending lawyer husband. Forbidden to see her beloved son, she sinks into a life of alcoholic degradation. Based on a French play, this classic melodrama fascinated film-makers and audiences for decades, resulting in two silent films, three sound versions and a 1981 TV movie with Tuesday Weld. The title role is here played by the splendid Broadway actress Ruth Chatterton, with Lewis Stone as the husband. Both Chatterton and director Lionel Barrymore were Oscar-nominated, but the film is more fascinating than convincing and now seems slow, mannered and stagey.