Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Clevercell Very disappointing...

Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

st-shot Displaying the saddest (brown?) eyes in film Irene Dunne soldiers her way through one setback after the next in The Secret of Madame Blanche. Dealing with three generations of an upper crust family Dunne finds all kinds of ways to sing the blues over a twenty year period.Silver spoon playboy Lenny St. John falls hard for showgirl Sally (Dunne) and in no time they are hitched. Dad Aubrey (Lionel Atwell) will have none of it and he browbeats sonny to end it who does so in the most extreme fashion by committing suicide. Aubrey, distraught by the realization that his money will be orphaned with no one to carry on his name has a detective shadow the pregnant Sally who after giving birth to a boy, sings for a living in a Paris pick-up joint. Aubrey abducts the child after slandering her and pulling some strings to get full custody. Years pass when her soldier son turns up at her bar makes a scene and gets involved in a murder. Madame Blanche in turn selflessly takes the fall instead.On stage Dunne is more Chevalier than Mistinquette but when she deals with the family St. John she delivers powerfully in scene after scene as well as age convincingly. Atwell as old man Aubrey also registers powerfully with an intractable condescending cruelty. As Sally's son Holmes Philips chips in commendably as well playing at first a loutish dough boy before moving on to some tender moments with Dunne.Taking place between fin de siècle and World War One the film is both sharply costumed (Adrian) and set designed (Cedric Gibbons) providing a lush look and background for Dunne's tragic Sally in this well mounted if at times far fetched tearjerker.

audiemurph It may be difficult to get past the premise of "Madame Blanche": movies always require a suspension of belief to some degree, but I had a very hard time with this one. I can't swallow the idea that Irene Dunne would give up her career to marry Phillip Holmes' snivelling, substance-free, work-allergic wimp of a man, after knowing him for about 8 seconds. Did young people in the 30's really marry so quickly without getting to know their potential spouses?Anyway, Holmes quickly justifies are suspicions. His father disinherits him, so angry is he that Holmes has married so far below his station. Holmes does nothing to make us feel any sympathy for him, but Irene Dunne loves him so! A real unappealingly weak character, he is.The dialogue is so insipid and without drama in the first half of the film that I seriously wondered whether I had the will to see it through.Happily, there is much improvement in the second half. Dunne's soldier-son, played by Douglas Walton, starts off as weak and selfish a person as his father (Holmes) was, but he does grow up and change nicely, and is somewhat appealing. Dunne is fabulous and convincing as an older woman - actually, impressively so - it is hard to recognize her as an attractive younger woman in her "old age" make-up! Lionel Atwill is absolutely evil as Holmes' brutally heartless father. The best scene in the film actually occurs in the first half: look for the close-up, upper-bodies -only shot of Dunne and Holmes in what will be their final parting; the entire shot is beautifully and slightly and softly out of focus, and is quite effective and touching.Overall, this is a mixed bag, but if you love early sound films just for their own sake, or are a fan of Irene Dunne, then you will appreciate this little soap opera.

dglink Innocent woman meets rich playboy. Innocent woman is seduced by rich playboy. Innocent woman is abandoned by rich playboy. Innocent woman has rich playboy's child. Innocent woman loses rich playboy's child. No-longer-innocent woman ages and prepares to sacrifice all for her child.An entire genre of motion pictures, which often feature Barbara Stanwyck or Lana Turner, has used this basic plot to wring tears from largely female audiences. In "The Secret of Madame Blanche," Irene Dunne takes a turn at this well-worn routine and maintains her dignity throughout, despite the script's attempts to drown her in clichés. In the role of showgirl, Sally Sanders, Dunne has a few opportunities to show off her fine voice, but the musical selections are poor. The relatively short film, which was adapted from a play, lurches forward from hackneyed scene to hackneyed scene and leaves chasms of time for the audience to fill in. Occasionally, patient viewers will be rewarded with dialog and delivery so rich in camp that they will howl helplessly with unintended laughter, although a mouth-to-mouth kiss between mother and son, perhaps common for the period, induces cringes today. While Lionel Atwill is effective as Aubrey St. John, the selfish controlling father, and Philips Holmes is appropriately weak as his son, the rich playboy, the film offers little beyond the incomparable Irene Dunne slumming in a sub-par vehicle. Coincidences abound, French accents come and go, laws benefit the rich and oppress the poor, and a mother's self-sacrificing love conquers all. What more could one ask for? Perhaps Barbara Stanwyck and "Stella Dallas?"

elpep49 another winner is this Madame-X-type film about mother love. She plays a classy stage performer who marries the spoiled son (Phillips Holmes)of a selfish rich man (Lionel Atwill). The son commits suicide after the father cuts him off and Dunne then loses the baby to the evil old man. She fends for herself over the next 20 years in French bars. A curious set of coincidences reunites mother and son during WW I. Anyway, Dunne is wonderful--as usual--as the mother and gets to age (as in Cimarron) into a spunky old lady. Irene Dunne remains one of the most underrated stars of the 30s, excellent in drama, comedy, or musicals. She's also one of the most likable.