"MADAME X."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 227, 25 September 1929, Page 8

"MADAME X."

It was only to be expected, with the high standard to which talking pictures have been brought, that those playß which have contributed to the best in drama should be brought to the screen. Of these, few more suitable pieces coiilS have been selected than "Madame XI" which will open at the Eegent Theatre on Saturday. As a play, "Madame %"■ has been put before audiences througjhout the world who have never failed to recognise its worth, and its two presentations as a silent picture (by Pauline Frederick and Pola Negri) have met wfth the success that its reputation predicted. Now, as a talking picture, it has been given the most perfect rendering tliafc the screen could give it. Its original form has been added to with scenes set in China, the South Sea Islands, and South America, where, after being turned from her home by her intolerant husband, Madame X wanders as a piece of flotsam on the wa**e of life. Facing cruelty at the hands of the men whom she followed, she kept the secret of her identity with a determination thai no harm should come to the son whom she loved and whom she had been forbidden to see. The influence that a card* sharper, who intended to use her as t, pawn to acquire quick riches, held over her, brought her to the greatest | iiapps« ness she had known —a meeting with hei , son, who was chosen to defend her for the murder of the card-sharper. Then comes the courtroom scene, where, un« known to himself, the young lawyer makes such a strong human appeal in defence of his mother, while his father, who has come to watch his eon, Tealisei to the full the cruelty with wiich fy has treated his wife. The performance of Ruth Chatterton (the famous New , York stage star who made her fihjl debut in "The Doctor's Secret") hi the title role, is a piece of work that wflj always be recognised as faultless. The part demands an unusual variety oj acting, but not once does Miss Chatterton fail. She has been given supporting artists of the front rank, and the poft trayals of her husband (by Lewft Stone), and her son, are also perform* ances which will win places among t«j best.