Madame X (1981)
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The 1981 TV version of Madame X was the seventh filmization of the old war-horse play by Alexandre Bisson. This time around, Tuesday Weld (replacing Susan Blakely) plays the poor woman (an airline stewardess in this version) who marries "outside her class" (hubby is a Presidential candidate). She is disgraced, gives up her baby to her wealthy in-laws, and sinks into a life of degradation. 25 years later the woman is accused of murder, and is defended in court by her own grown-up offspring. Adaptor Edward Anhalt makes a few feeble stabs at updating the story, adding drug abuse to the woman's descent into prostitution. Also, her child is now a girl instead of a boy, rabbeting a tentative feminist angle in the proceedings. Other than that, the 1981 Madame X has even less to offer than the lavish but empty 1966 Lana Turner version--except for an offbeat appearance by comedian Jerry Stiller as a slimy blackmailer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Complete Cast:
- John Rose - Dr. Rascoff
- Raleigh Bond - Captain Costa
- Stanley Brock - Arthur Penrose
- Robert Hooks - D.A. Roerich
- Eleanor Parker - Katherine Richardson
- Granville van Dusen - Clay Richardson
- Wendy Cutler - Nurse
- Martina Deignan
- Tuesday Weld - Holly Richardson
- Jerry Stiller - Burt Orland
- Tom Tully - Man in Bar
- Jeremy Brett - Dr. Terrence Keith
- Len Cariou - John Abbott
- Susan Lanier - Peggy
- Tony Plana - Senor Rueda
- Ray Wise - Bellman
- Conrad Palmisano - Private Detective
- Bridget Sienna - Clerk
- Edward Anhalt
- Director(s):
- Robert Ellis Miller
- Writer(s):
- Edward Anhalt
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