MovieChat Forums > Madame X (1966) Discussion > Constance B. vs. Lana Turner - catfight ...

Constance B. vs. Lana Turner - catfight on the set!

posted 18 years ago by mellison-2
27 replies | jump to latest

According to film critic Robert Osborne, who intros the film on TCM, Lana Turner resented the fact that Constance Bennet looked so young on screen. Bennett played Turner's mother-in-law and was 16 years older than Lana in real life. Bennett also admitted that she had a face lift prior to the filming of this movie. Connie had not been seen on screen for over 15 years. Sparks flew on the set between the two according to Osbourne. You gotta love Lana!!!

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] billellis 18 years ago

Petty actress stuff. Turner was at the center of the enire film; what difference did it make to her if the actress playing her mother in law looked good in her three scenes? One wonders if the director encouraged it, to get more antagonism between the movie's two characters (an old Hitchcock trick).

I heard a similar story about Bette Davis and Susan Hayward filming Where Love Has Gone. Equally petty. It'd be nice to enjoy their work and be blissfully ignorant of their personal deficiencies.

"We're moving to a bigger soundstage to accommodate two actresses' egos."

[–] preppy-3 18 years ago

I agree--who cares about their pettiness?--but it is fun to speculate. I personally felt Bennett looked WAY too young to be Turner's mother. For me it threw the movie off every time I saw her. Still, it's a good movie.

[–] billellis 18 years ago

Isn't Bennett John Forsyth's character's mother? At any rate, she didn't look old enough to be either's mother.

I guess that in a movie as soapy as this, one should expect actress' egos to trump visual believability. Frankly, I had a hard time accepting the middle-aged Turner as a young shop girl in the early scenes.

On the other hand, I'd be delighted to watch Constance Bennett at any age read a grocery list or powder her nose. She didn't make many films, and there's a terrible scarcity of them on DVD.

[–] duffygirl 11 years ago

Wondering which version of this film shows scenes with Lana as the shop girl. I have seen this movie broadcast on TV and on VHS. In both instances, the film opened with the newly married couple driving up to the manse in Connecticut.

I would love to see the meeting/courtship scenes that were apparently edited out. Any hints on where I could find them?

[–] babymole84 17 years ago

I am actually glad to see this piece of news. I was taken back by Lana's appearance compared to Constance. For that matter, she was way too young in appearance to be John Forsythe's mother!! He looked like her lover!!! They could have been the same age as far as I was concerned. That really put a damper on the beginning. Nevertheless, the ending was flawless and Lana really was quite brilliant. I thought she was superb in "Imitation of Life", but she really blew my socks off with this one. I cried much longer than any grown woman should. I'd love to see it again if anyone knows when it will be on.

[–] BlondeVixen 17 years ago

<Petty actress stuff. Turner was at the center of the enire film; what difference did it make to her if the actress playing her mother in law looked good in her three scenes? I heard a similar story about Bette Davis and Susan Hayward filming Where Love Has Gone. Equally petty. It'd be nice to enjoy their work and be blissfully ignorant of their personal deficiencies.>

It's "star" insecurity.

[–] senzafine66-1 18 years ago

I was watching TCM's broadcast of "Madame X" that night also, when Bob Osborne made the mention of Constance Bennett having a face lift before the film began shooting.

I can understand Turner's frustration--Bennett looked magnificent! I recently watched Bennett in "Paris Underground" and "Centennial Summer". By the 1940's, she wasn't aging very well. But at age 60 in "Madame X", she was so ethereally lovely, and her brittle portrayal of Estelle Anderson stole the show from Turner.

I am a big Turner fan, but even so, I felt Turner let that artificial streak in her acting get in the way of making Holly even more sympathetic at the beginning of the film (not to mention that she was a might too old to be believable as the 'younger' Holly).

I do love this film. The first time I saw it was when NBC ran it primetime a thousand years ago. My kid brother was watching it with me, and I remember how traumatized he was at watching Turner's descent from socialite to pathetic anonymity.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] phillindholm 17 years ago

Bennett looked beautiful, but her acting was totally convincing. A snob whose only saving grace was her love for her son and grandson-strange how similar her character is to Lana's. Only her motives are different.

[–] HarlowMGM 12 years ago

I've heard the phrase "champagne in a dixie cup" before but never knew it originated with a Ross Hunter quip about Lana.

Here's a first hand account of the Turner/Bennett cold war from the set by columnist-actress Jill Jackson, who had a small part in the movie, from an interview published in 1994:

"In 'Madame X,' I played the stern police matron who leads Lana Turner in and out of the courtroom and was there for Lana's big deathbed scene. It was raining, and cold, and Lana had been drinking brandy, and the mike caught her stomach rumbling. Also, she was feuding with Constance Bennett, who played her mother-in-law, and it was such fun to watch Lana's head peek out of her dressing room door, and if Connie was on the set, she wouldn't come out. At the end, she refused to read lines for Connie's final reaction shot, so I did it."

[–] pauline-k 17 years ago

If Lana Turner looks bloated and wrinkled owing to boozing off the set, then give me a drink!
Her figure remained trim all her life and I can see no evidence of excess fat in this film, or later ones.
I certainly agree she was brave to let herself be made up to look haggard in the second half of the film - a trend set earlier in the sixties by Davis and Crawford.
Well done Miss Turner I say.

[–] pauline-k 17 years ago

If Lana Turner supposedly looked bloated owing to off-set boozing, then give me a drink! I cannot for the life of me see an ounce of excess flesh on the lady. I wish I'd looked like that at 45!
This film is a revelation. Brave indeed of Miss Turner to forgo her "Sweater Girl" image and be willing to look a tramp. Fine acting though, and still a beauty.

[–] phillindholm 16 years ago

Bennett and Turner were both great in the film-but Bennett DID look beautiful ,and that in no way diminished the believability of her performance. As for the ''catfights'', the script called for the two ladies to hate each other anyway, so.........

[–] kenca-1 12 years ago

Madame X was a favorite movie of mine when i was a kid. It made me cry then, and now at 56 made me cry again while watching it today.

I had the surreal pleasure of meeting Ms. Turner at a party at Liberace's house when I first came to Hollywood. I was standing in the entry way when she entered the front door, accompanied by a body guard. I extended my hand and said hello, and blubbered something about being a big fan, but she was unfortunately too drunk to notice. Her body guard said "I'm sure Miss Turner is pleased to meet you."

Wow. Sad. But she was still a presence.

[–] rossneville2003 16 years ago

I saw this movie in the 60's in a movie theater.The audience definately reacted when John called Constance "Mother" We all thought it was stange because she didn't look old enough.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] fiftyfootqueenie 16 years ago

I think you've a point there (not so elegantly put, mind!). David Thomson (best film writer in the world) once said that Turner's movies after the 40s 'only served to show how quickly her looks went puffy'. I think she lacked the hardy beauty of a Gardner or a Hayworth. She had those slutty-blonde-hottie looks that peak early (usually at about age 25) and then it's meringue-stiff hair and heavily-shadowed soft-focus from there on. I don't agree that this film gave her a chance to 'prove' she could act either - she couldn't. Here, she just racks up the melodramatics to screeching pitch, as she always did. It was her stock in trade to do so. She was a Movie Star, not an actress.

As for Constance Bennett - what a hoot! She once said something about being a gannet but having a vertebrae you could hang a hat on - she wasn't lying. Check it out through her bare-back gown. It looks reptilian!

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[–] fiftyfootqueenie 15 years ago

Hmm. I wouldn't call smoking yourself into an early grave and not eating 'Taking care' of one's self'. Those society broads were quick-fix gals. They (well, Bennett and her character) would have come of age in an era that worshipped cigarettes, red meat, and sunbathing. Come 40, it was facelifts, diets, and steam baths all the way.

Think I'd prefer Turner's what-the-hell hedonism, myself.

[–] 15 years ago

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