The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)

Director:

Edgar Selwyn

Writers:

Edward Knoblock (play)
Charles MacArthur (writer)

Release Date:

24 October 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Out of jail for a crime she did not commit, Madelon turns to prostitution and thievery to send her illegitimate son to medical school.

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Thief | France | Illegitimacy | Prostitution

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins

Cast

Helen Hayes	...	Madelon Claudet
Lewis Stone	...	Carlo Boretti
Neil Hamilton	...	Larry Maynard
Cliff Edwards	...	Victor Lebeau
Jean Hersholt	...	Dr. Dulac
Marie Prevost	...	Rosalie Lebeau
Robert Young	...	Dr. Lawrence Claudet
Karen Morley	...	Alice Claudet
Charles Winninger	...	M. Novella, Photographer
Alan Hale	...	Hubert
Halliwell Hobbes	...	Roget, Boretti's Butler
Lennox Pawle	...	Felix St. Jacques
Russ Powell	...	Monsieur Claudet
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Bakewell	...	Jacques (scenes deleted)
Tenen Holtz	...	Emil (scenes deleted)
Lloyd Ingraham	...	Claudet (scenes deleted)
Claire McDowell	...	Angeline (scenes deleted)
Bradley Page	...	Salignac (scenes deleted)
Aileen Pringle	...	Suzette (scenes deleted)
Margaret Seddon	...	Grandmother (scenes deleted)

Also Known As:

The Lullaby (UK)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Before writer Charles MacArthur was assigned to the project, he saw a preliminary script and protested to MGM studio head Irving Thalberg that the play "The Lullaby" was hopelessly old-fashioned and wouldn't be a good film debut for his wife, Helen Hayes. Thalberg heard him out and told him, "You don't like it - you're a writer. You fix it," and hired MacArthur to do the script.

Quotes:

Carlo Boretti: Sit here my dear. Oh wait, I want to get this cushion... it brings out all the blue that's sleeping in your eyes.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "What's My Line?: (1964-06-07)" (1964)

Soundtrack:

Lullaby

Real mother-love junk

Very MGM mother-love early-talkie stuff, which one suspects Norma Shearer turned down. Charles MacArthur's screenplay at least makes its points swiftly and with a minimum of embarrassment, but the direction makes rather too much of having The First Lady of the American Theatre in every scene. Helen's key-lighting is just so, her dithering and pauses are all fluttery excess, and the makeup (innocent girl to demimonde-cocotte to hag) does half the acting for her. Not that she's an incompetent film actress -- she's quite good, and even sexy, in the following year's "A Farewell to Arms." It's just that this is the bathetic "Madame X"/"Stella Dallas" sort of nonsense that sets young actresses dreaming of Oscars before they even face the camera. In a very American bunch of supporting Parisians, Marie Prevost is sympathetic and welcome, Jean Hersholt is not the noble bore he often was, and Lewis Stone gets to be a most un-Judge Hardy-like count with a secret.