#61 - The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)

The three days known as the ACT/MME affair are finally done for me! It is a stressful time that depends so much on our entire staff to do a good job and then for us as the test supervisors to oversee everything, as well as making sure the requisite numbers of students take the test.  I'm just glad that this most important first part of the process is over.

To celebrate, Brigid took me out to eat at Scallopini's (I had the pasta with chicken and asparagus and Gorgonzola cream - yummy) then I went home to take a short nap before watching the first of what I hope to be two films this evening.  The film is called The Sin of Madelon Claudet, and it aired on TCM's 31 Days of Oscar in the section of movies devoted to actors who won both a lead and supporting role Oscar throughout their careers.  This particular movie was a win for Helen Hayes, the First Lady of the American Theatre, who made a successful transition to films starting with this, her first.  She would later win a Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in the movie Airport.

In the film, Hayes plays a woman who has a child with an American man, who has to go back to the U.S. very early on, leaving her with the child.  Left alone with no prospects and no money, she ends up living with and eventually marrying a wealthy jewelry merchant who she likes very much, leaving her child with friends so as to keep him "hidden".

The framing device of the story is a bit stupid: we meet a woman-- we'll later find out she is basically Madelon's daughter-in-law-- who is fed up with her husband's inattention to her because of his career as a doctor.  Another man, Madelon's son's mentor, then basically sits her down and tells her that her suffering is nothing compared to that of this woman, and I guess he tells her the story of Madelon Claudet.  Not the best prologue in the world.

I can tell within minutes that unless the movie has an abrupt switch, it's going to be very overblown: lots of hammy acting, melodrama, and situations borne straight out of literary contrivances. Madelon's life is not an easy one: all sorts of bad things happen to her, and the case is made that if life is a series of choices, then Madelon basically made all the wrong ones and that's what gave her the life she has.  And it's sadly not much of one.

The "abrupt switch" alluded to in the last paragraph does, somewhat, happen, about halfway through the film.  It is at this point that the performances are really allowed to shine, and Helen Hayes shows what she is capable of.  The story itself is a bit lame at times (the epilogue is as sappy as one could ever want, and Madelon's son is as wonderful as anyone could ever want) but the overall effect of the movie is still retained.

Score: 5/10