Alexandre Bisson's story is told yet again in this 1981 TV adaptation featuring Tuesday Weld, Eleanor Parker, and Jeremy Brett. The gist of it is that Tuesday marries and has a child only to lose it all, when she has a casual affair and her mother-in-law forces her to fake her death, in order to get out her son's life without scandal and shame. I saw an early black-and-white version of this years ago; since I can't remember much of it, I can't compare it to that. The only version I'm really used to (because of my numerous screenings of it) is the Lana Turner film version. The story is one of the most retold in film history, but in this Tuesday Weld version the sex of the child is changed from a son to a daughter. During her years apart from her daughter, a series of miseries and hardships leads up to Tuesday killing a seedy opportunist. She is assigned a young lady attorney to defend her, and Tuesday ultimately finds out that the young lady is her daughter. That is the whole spoiler and plot, but anyone who knows the story or has seen at least one film version of it knows it already. What distinguishes this from other films is Tuesday Weld. Some may even say she's better in the role than Lana, and I do admit she's good. Her best scenes show her hardened from life going from country to country over the years. But the film lacks the production values that the Lana Turner version had. But I guess it's up to someone's taste whichever one prefers - the lavish Lana version or the more realistic!-based Tuesday one without all the glamour and melodramatic music. Quite frankly, the beginning or setup of this film (getting to the crust of the film) was pretty boring save for the presence of the always lovely Eleanor Parker, who gave a bold performance as the mother-in-law. The characters of the husband and the other man were not terribly memorable, and the actress playing the attorney daughter was awfully bland. Couldn't they have found someone better for that role? The crust of my review is that Tuesday Weld saves an otherwise average take on the Bisson story. It can be seen on YouTube, but, if you don't know Tuesday Weld or like far-fetched story lines, this isn't the film for you.
7 Reviews
Tuesday's Good, But I'll Take Lana Turner Any Day of the Week
JLRMovieReviews14 April 2014
Warning: Spoilers
I love this version of Madam X
roxieft-124 November 2008
I grew up watching the Lana Turner version of Madam X. Then in 1981 when this film first came out on TV I was right there. I really loved this version because I think Tuesday Weld was a better actress. And the film was in color too. I would say to anyone if you haven't seen this movie your have missed a great film. It is a tear jerker for sure, and every time I am in the mood to cry I watch this movie. I have this movie on VHS tape (got it in the in the 80's or 90's) and I watch it from time to time and never get tired of it. I have family that borrow the movie too all the time. We Love it!! I completely recommend this version of Madam X.
acting worthy of the highest award
grahamclarke8 March 2004
The fact that "Madame X" has been made four times is testament to the lure of its high melodrama. The 1966 version was hugely successful while this television version pretty much disappeared into oblivion.
There's little need to compare these versions. Lana Turner had a strong screen presence but as an actress was terribly limited. Throughout her career she seemed to reprise the same artificial, humorless, wooden persona.
Tuesday Weld too has a strong screen presence, noticeable from her very first appearances in the fifties, but she would develop into a first rate screen actress as well. One would be hard pressed to find such an odd career. There seems to be little argument as to her radiant beauty and nobody seems to doubt her dramatic talent either. Yet in her prime she only gained big starring roles in television movies. If Weld is under appreciated, its largely because these movies are rarely, if ever seen, and are in fact so hard to find (in particular "Madame X").When by rights she should have been playing leading film roles, she was giving of her best in material way below what she deserved. Despite the mediocre material, and "Madame X" is certainly no exception, she always acted with great subtlety and intelligence.
"Madame X" gives her much scope, since she gets to play the character from innocent young mother, through middle aged alcoholic, to old woman. It's a virtuoso turn; never flashy, always credible. It's simply great acting worthy of the highest award.
Director Robert Ellis Miller all in all has done a fine job. The movie has a slightly Douglas Sirk feel to it as far as the visuals are concerned. The supporting performances are adequate (Eleanor Parker) to good (Cariou, Stiller and Van Dusen), but this its Weld's movie from the first to the last frame.
There's little need to compare these versions. Lana Turner had a strong screen presence but as an actress was terribly limited. Throughout her career she seemed to reprise the same artificial, humorless, wooden persona.
Tuesday Weld too has a strong screen presence, noticeable from her very first appearances in the fifties, but she would develop into a first rate screen actress as well. One would be hard pressed to find such an odd career. There seems to be little argument as to her radiant beauty and nobody seems to doubt her dramatic talent either. Yet in her prime she only gained big starring roles in television movies. If Weld is under appreciated, its largely because these movies are rarely, if ever seen, and are in fact so hard to find (in particular "Madame X").When by rights she should have been playing leading film roles, she was giving of her best in material way below what she deserved. Despite the mediocre material, and "Madame X" is certainly no exception, she always acted with great subtlety and intelligence.
"Madame X" gives her much scope, since she gets to play the character from innocent young mother, through middle aged alcoholic, to old woman. It's a virtuoso turn; never flashy, always credible. It's simply great acting worthy of the highest award.
Director Robert Ellis Miller all in all has done a fine job. The movie has a slightly Douglas Sirk feel to it as far as the visuals are concerned. The supporting performances are adequate (Eleanor Parker) to good (Cariou, Stiller and Van Dusen), but this its Weld's movie from the first to the last frame.
Much better production than all of the preceeding versions.
williammacart4 May 2001
All of the production values surrounding the outstanding performance of Tuesday Weld in the role of Holly Richardson make this production far better than any of the versions that predated it. I think it was a great improvement over the Lana Turner portrayal of the fifties. Ms. Weld stepped into this role at the very last minute and brought a dimension and strength to the character that far surpassed earlier attempts.
X Marks the Splat.
mark.waltz5 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
"Holly dear, a catholic will never be president." So says Eleanor Parker in a melodramatic manner, attempting to put her down in front of dull politician son Granville Van Dusen in this fourth version of the ancient early 1900's play, not much different than the 1966 version where the mother-in-law is the villain, not the husband as seen in previous versions. So it's a near recreation of that campy Ross Hunter version where Lana Turner allowed herself to be de-glamorized where Tuesday Weld steps into the long suffering shoes of bored wife and mother accidentally involved in the death of an over amorous acquaintance of her husband's, forced by Parker to fake her death and never return. Years as a glamorous wanderer go by, and all of a sudden she's a drunk forced into a blackmail scheme involving her past. This time, murder does happen, and guess who ends up being her public defender.
All right as far as early 80's soapy dramas go, but other than the fact that it's her daughter who ends up defending her, there's nothing special about this outside of Weld's much more intense performance than Turner's. Parker, once a Lana Turner like star herself, takes on the Constance Bennett role and while subtle in early scenes fails to be properly venomous when she should be. Jerry Stiller does all right in the role that Burgess Meredith chewed up and spit out, but the rest of the cast pretty much just walks through their parts. The bottom line is that this remake is completely unnecessary with the other film versions most likely occasionally seen on late night TV or at revival houses. Certainly no match for the 1966 version as far as audaciousness or colorful camp is concerned, and not the fun trash of that film or the popular nighttime soaps of the early 1980's where Turner would soon be seen.
All right as far as early 80's soapy dramas go, but other than the fact that it's her daughter who ends up defending her, there's nothing special about this outside of Weld's much more intense performance than Turner's. Parker, once a Lana Turner like star herself, takes on the Constance Bennett role and while subtle in early scenes fails to be properly venomous when she should be. Jerry Stiller does all right in the role that Burgess Meredith chewed up and spit out, but the rest of the cast pretty much just walks through their parts. The bottom line is that this remake is completely unnecessary with the other film versions most likely occasionally seen on late night TV or at revival houses. Certainly no match for the 1966 version as far as audaciousness or colorful camp is concerned, and not the fun trash of that film or the popular nighttime soaps of the early 1980's where Turner would soon be seen.
Tour De force performance by Ms Weld!
HollywoodandVine19 December 2006
It has been years since I viewed this film but it had such an impact on me when it appeared in 1981. The story paralleled so close to a very similar personal/family situation. Yes, this last version was by far the best ever. Tuesday Weld seemed to "not be seen" for a while then she mysteriously appeared in this movie, wow! The fact that it was up to date made it even more real. I recall the scene where she meets Jerry Stiller's character in a very cheap, run-down apartment building. At this point Ms Weld's already in a boozed & drug-induced haze and practically fights for her bottle. The real drama sets in as Stiller's character tries to reach out to her but to no avail. In her drunken stupor she mumbles something about having a daughter & family, no one seems to believe her. I think she even over-doses in a scene. Be sure to take lots of tissue, this is a major tear jerker! A must see and still holds up quite well to this day! I am certain Tuesday Weld received an award and critical acclaim for this role and deservedly so. Get the DVD if it exists!
Not Xceptional
Oct27 October 2004
Alexandre Bisson's turn-of-the-century warhorse of a stage weepie has served movie producers well, with three silent and four talkie versions to date. The latest is a TV film where the set-up resembles Ross Hunter's glossy Lana Turner vehicle of 1965 (reviewed by me) and that screenplay's writer gets a credit.
Tuesday Weld is a 'flying waitress' (stewardess) from San Diego named Holly who marries an aristocratic would-be politician with a bitchily snobbish and protective mother. The guy to whom she guiltily succumbs while hubby's neglecting her in DC dies by falling downstairs, precipitating her exile to avoid bringing scandal on the clan-- also like the Hunter production. Twist is that an infant daughter, not a son as in Bisson's original, grows up to be a lawyer and defends her mom (unknowingly) in a murder trial many years later. Thus the mother-son charge of the previous films is lost, and the gay frisson with it; instead, we have faint feminist overtones.
Granville Van Dusen doesn't look or sound patrician as the weakling husband who acquiesces in his wife's disappearing act, and her fling with his friend is unmotivated. Dark, gaunt Eleanor Parker is Big Momma in her latter-day harpy mode, as seen most spectacularly in 'An American Dream'; but here her lines are lackluster, and she does not match the venomous hauteur of Constance Bennett putting down and expelling Lana. The 1981 production is soapy when it should be madly melodramatic: there is a touch of the Danielle Steels or Barbara Taylor Bradfords in the script's polish job by Edward Anhalt, who also pops up as the trial judge.
The action begins in 1956, but Weld's coiffeur and maquillage are not of the Fifties. She was touted as a kid model who'd finally become a Real Actress in 'Pretty Poison', but her squeaky, querulous manner as Holly does not impress alongside Lana Turner's post-Stompanato, dues-paid grandeur.
The nice Danish doctor-protector of the 1965 entry becomes a nice Irish ditto, played by Jeremy Brett with the hectoring raillery that would soon fit him to be Sherlock Holmes. To inject a faint sense of time passing, Holly later has an interlude with a draft-dodging drug dealer in Munich. Her fatal liaison with a Spanish conman (no match for 1965's Burgess Meredith) and the courtroom sequence are hasty and flat. So is her death scene in the cell. The TVM loses its nerve where Hunter's production pulled out the emotional stops and finished in a kind of lush bleakness. As so often, the tube has diminished its material.
Tuesday Weld is a 'flying waitress' (stewardess) from San Diego named Holly who marries an aristocratic would-be politician with a bitchily snobbish and protective mother. The guy to whom she guiltily succumbs while hubby's neglecting her in DC dies by falling downstairs, precipitating her exile to avoid bringing scandal on the clan-- also like the Hunter production. Twist is that an infant daughter, not a son as in Bisson's original, grows up to be a lawyer and defends her mom (unknowingly) in a murder trial many years later. Thus the mother-son charge of the previous films is lost, and the gay frisson with it; instead, we have faint feminist overtones.
Granville Van Dusen doesn't look or sound patrician as the weakling husband who acquiesces in his wife's disappearing act, and her fling with his friend is unmotivated. Dark, gaunt Eleanor Parker is Big Momma in her latter-day harpy mode, as seen most spectacularly in 'An American Dream'; but here her lines are lackluster, and she does not match the venomous hauteur of Constance Bennett putting down and expelling Lana. The 1981 production is soapy when it should be madly melodramatic: there is a touch of the Danielle Steels or Barbara Taylor Bradfords in the script's polish job by Edward Anhalt, who also pops up as the trial judge.
The action begins in 1956, but Weld's coiffeur and maquillage are not of the Fifties. She was touted as a kid model who'd finally become a Real Actress in 'Pretty Poison', but her squeaky, querulous manner as Holly does not impress alongside Lana Turner's post-Stompanato, dues-paid grandeur.
The nice Danish doctor-protector of the 1965 entry becomes a nice Irish ditto, played by Jeremy Brett with the hectoring raillery that would soon fit him to be Sherlock Holmes. To inject a faint sense of time passing, Holly later has an interlude with a draft-dodging drug dealer in Munich. Her fatal liaison with a Spanish conman (no match for 1965's Burgess Meredith) and the courtroom sequence are hasty and flat. So is her death scene in the cell. The TVM loses its nerve where Hunter's production pulled out the emotional stops and finished in a kind of lush bleakness. As so often, the tube has diminished its material.
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