Madame X (1929)

A young wife who left her husband and infant son for another man returns home when she hears the boy is sick. The husband, however, isn’t interested in reconciliation and tells her to leave, which sends her into a downward spiral of degradation over the next 20 years. She winds up on trial for murder of a con man, defended by her own son (though neither knows the other).

It’s all very tragic and terribly heavy handed.

C-