VERY old and creaky talky about Madame Claudet (Helen Hayes) sacrificing everything for her son (who grows up into Robert Young). The thing is her son doesn't know she's alive. She had to give him up because she was abandoned by his father and (wrongfully) thrown in jail. She secretly supports him by becoming a prostitute.
It's as bad as it sounds and very old and out-dated. Plays like a (bad) play but Helen Hayes single-handedly saves it. She overdoes it occasionally (but then she WAS a stage actress) but she's basically just excellent. She won a well-deserved Oscar for this. And seeing Robert Young so...young (sorry) is fun. I just didn't buy the story for one second--it was just too silly (and old-fashioned) to be taken seriously. But it moves VERY quickly and is worth seeing for Hayes alone. I'm giving it a 7.
It's as bad as it sounds and very old and out-dated. Plays like a (bad) play but Helen Hayes single-handedly saves it. She overdoes it occasionally (but then she WAS a stage actress) but she's basically just excellent. She won a well-deserved Oscar for this. And seeing Robert Young so...young (sorry) is fun. I just didn't buy the story for one second--it was just too silly (and old-fashioned) to be taken seriously. But it moves VERY quickly and is worth seeing for Hayes alone. I'm giving it a 7.