The Sin of Madelon Claudet

Madelon, imprisoned for a crime she did not commit, comes out with nothing left. She wants to put her son, born out of wedlock, through school and make a doctor of him. There are only certain things she can do to that end, and she does all of them; her son meanwhile knows nothing about who his mother is or what she has done. Directed by Edgar Selwyn, this pre-Code production is one of the harder examples of the self-sacrificing mother story. The film neither declares the woman a saint nor condemns her; what sits at the centre is that she pays the bill for her choices alone. Helen Hayes won the Academy Award for best actress for the part and made her move from the stage to the screen with this film. Seventy-five minutes, with no time wasted.