Madame X (1929)

After abandoning her husband (Lewis Stone) and child for her lover, a woman (Ruth Chatterton) attempts to reconcile with her husband only to be kicked out and told she will never see her child again. As the years pass, she sinks into a life of degradation and eventually, murder. Based on the 1908 play by Alexandre Bisson and directed by the actor Lionel Barrymore. One of the countless versions of the play which has been filmed some ten times in various countries, this one suffers from being caught in the transition to talkies. This is a stagnant film. Barrymore plops his stationary camera down and films his actors going through their paces. The acting is pretty stiff for the most part, even Chatterton doesn't thaw out until the second half of the movie. There's no music in the film, not even over the title credits. Theatre orchestras were still expected to provide whatever music was needed. With Raymond Hackett, Holmes Herbert, Eugenie Besserer and Sidney Toler.