The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)

Though the thrust of the story here is pretty well trammelled, it's worth a watch just to see Helen Hayes on really good form. We start as a young woman enters her husband's study to leave him a note. She is leaving him, convinced that his constant time away with an other woman is proof of his affair. Luckily, "Dr. Dulac" (Jean Hersholt) is already in the room. He sits her down and regales her with an history. That introduces us to "Madelon". She's the eponymous good-time girl who manages to get herself embroiled in the criminal activities of "the Count" (Lewis Stone). He is apprehended, as is she - but he takes then easier way out leaving her to spend ten years in jail for complicity. She must leave her newborn son in the capable hands of the kindly "Dulac" who nurtures the young man's ambitions to become a doctor. Once released, she turns her hand to just about anything to raise the cash necessary to anonymously put him through medical school - and then she meets him (Robert Young). He seems a generous fellow but she, now reduced to scavenging for a living, is too ashamed to admit whom she is. Can they all reconcile? Hayes is great to watch here - she exudes an emotional and characterful personality that demonstrates there is no lengths to which a mother will not go, especially one who has been wronged, to help her child. Hersholt is also effective as are the brief appearances from Stone. It's a bit of a predictable, join-the-dots chronology, but still worth a watch.