The three principle actors are the best thing about "Forbidden" released in 1932 by Columbia Pictures. Like most pre-code films, it dealt more frankly with story lines like extramarital affairs and unwed mothers. Lonely Stanwyck meets an outgoing man (Adolphe Menjou) and falls in love, not knowing he is married. She tries to do the right thing, staying away from him, and then has his baby without his knowledge. Well, they meet again, are off and on again, all the while Menjou's political career soars, and he stays married, raising the child as his and his wife's. Stanwyck stays the "other woman" for decades. Then there is the sleazy newspaper man (Ralph Bellamy) out to get Menjou and destroy his political career, and is also hot for Stanwyck, who works for his newspaper. It all turns pretty sordid, to say the least. The film has its flaws, and the script at times jumps about, but Barbara Stanwyck is good in anything she does, and it was nice to see Adolphe Menjou actually playing someone who is actually in love (and rather sweet in his own way) and not a sleazy stage producer, which seemed to be his usual role in the 1930's! I had no idea the newspaperman was Ralph Bellamy - he is very young and good looking here, although a slime ball. But he too turns in a good performance. These films remain important because they remind of us a time when films were more honest and blunt in their dealing with real life situations - before the enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934. This film was directed by Frank Capra - who would direct Stanwyck in some of her most memorable roles.
47 Reviews
Despite a poor script, you still feel the hand of a great movie director
fredyfriedlander-12 April 2005
"Forbidden" is no doubt pure melodrama. Frank Capra, its director expressed in his autobiography, that he " should have stood in bed". Fortunately he didn't because although the story is "soggy and 99.44% pure soap opera", using his own words, it still retains powerful moments and excellent interpretations from its main actors: Barbara Stanwyck and Adolphe Menjou. Their first meeting at a cruise to Havana, with Menjou so drunk that he ends in a wrong cabin (number 66 instead of 99) where Stanwyck, bored and happy to encounter somebody, is one of many moments where Capra's talent is evident. Raplh Bellamy is also fine as the managing editor of a newspaper, where gossip is always welcome. No doubt that this early talkie, with some flaws or doubtful situations, still partially conceals that behind the camera there is one of the masters of cinema: Frank Capra. I clearly recommend not to miss this imperfect but valuable movie.
A fine melodrama.
DukeEman28 March 1999
Stanwyck plays a kept woman for a married politician. Out of her sheer devotion to him she decides not to cause a scandal when she falls pregnant. Instead, she disappears, but no sooner does the politician track her down and the film gets swept away by the melodrama of a soap opera. But what a fine melodrama this is. Capra managed to take the fat out of the story and move through time in great leaps and bounds. This film is full of surprises and never sells out to the moral crusaders of the time. Further more, the characters are human, playful, you feel for them as the story slowly sucks you in until you have no choice but to go along with the melodramatic symphony that plays with your heart and mind.
Great early Capra with Stanwyck and Menjou
Manton294 November 2010
Stanwyck and Menjou are on top form here, a real pleasure to watch, and the camera-work is exquisite; the story/pacing is weak in places but you won't mind this much (perhaps hardly notice) unless you're immune to the former. The film depicts, over a period of about 20 years, a complex clandestine love-relationship between the two leads, leaving some space for individual interpretation - not at all like most films made under the appalling thirty year tyranny of the Hayes code introduced a couple of years later. Forbidden is a serious, thought-provoking and often very moving film, with careful, 'arty' composition and psychologically-loaded lingering shots, but it also contains moments of melodrama (not in bad way) and humour (laugh-out-loud but quirky, not slapstick). Highly recommended, along with Capra/Stanwyck's The Bitter Tea of General Yen, made the following year. I give it a 7 - reluctantly, in my effort to be objective with regards to the story. I watched it on the big screen and I 'felt' it as an 8.
heavy-duty precode melodrama
blanche-224 December 2012
In 1932's "Forbidden," Barbara Stanwyck plays Lulu, who quits her job as a librarian, withdraws her savings of $1200, and goes on a two-week trip to Havana. When we first see the new Lulu, she is descending a long staircase into a restaurant on board ship, and she's wearing a fabulous gown and a fur wrap. That's right, because in 1932, $1200 was the equivalent of $18,000 today! Enough for a two-week vacation and then some.
On the ship, Lulu meets an attorney, Bob (Adolphe Menjou), and the two fall in love. Lulu remains his mistress when they return to America, even though she's met Holland (Ralph Bellamy), the editor of the newspaper where she works, and he's crazy about her. Bob eventually admits that he's married, that his wife is an invalid, and he can't leave her. For a time, he and Lulu break up, and unbeknownst to him, she has his baby, a girl she names Roberta. She leaves her job at the newspaper and goes into hiding.
Bob finds her, and so does Holland, who catches her with Bob, now the district attorney and whom he dislikes. Lulu says she's the governess for Bob's daughter. Because Holland is going to publish the story, Bob has no choice but to present a new adopted daughter to his wife when she returns from a series of treatments overseas. Lulu stays on as the nurse. It becomes too difficult for her, and she leaves Bob -- and her child -- behind.
This is a real potboiler, directed by Frank Capra and beautifully acted by Barbara Stanwyck. It's an old-fashioned story that develops one twist after another. The story encompasses about 21 years, when Lulu is probably early 40s and Holland a little older - naturally they have white in their hair and dark circles.
Stanwyck excelled at this type of film. Both Menjou and Bellamy are excellent. In the hands of a director without Capra's talent and with a cast beneath this one, much of this movie would have been laughable. Dated as it is, it's well worth seeing.
On the ship, Lulu meets an attorney, Bob (Adolphe Menjou), and the two fall in love. Lulu remains his mistress when they return to America, even though she's met Holland (Ralph Bellamy), the editor of the newspaper where she works, and he's crazy about her. Bob eventually admits that he's married, that his wife is an invalid, and he can't leave her. For a time, he and Lulu break up, and unbeknownst to him, she has his baby, a girl she names Roberta. She leaves her job at the newspaper and goes into hiding.
Bob finds her, and so does Holland, who catches her with Bob, now the district attorney and whom he dislikes. Lulu says she's the governess for Bob's daughter. Because Holland is going to publish the story, Bob has no choice but to present a new adopted daughter to his wife when she returns from a series of treatments overseas. Lulu stays on as the nurse. It becomes too difficult for her, and she leaves Bob -- and her child -- behind.
This is a real potboiler, directed by Frank Capra and beautifully acted by Barbara Stanwyck. It's an old-fashioned story that develops one twist after another. The story encompasses about 21 years, when Lulu is probably early 40s and Holland a little older - naturally they have white in their hair and dark circles.
Stanwyck excelled at this type of film. Both Menjou and Bellamy are excellent. In the hands of a director without Capra's talent and with a cast beneath this one, much of this movie would have been laughable. Dated as it is, it's well worth seeing.
Stanwyck Finds Love - and a Married Man - on a Cruise
HarlowMGM9 May 2010
FORBIDDEN is a passable soap opera from 1932 notable for it's pre-code bluntness about adultery and illegitimacy (the movie was not allowed to be reissued just three years later after the formation of the Hays code.) Barbara Stanwyck stars as a twenty-something young matron well on her way to spinsterhood in her dead end job as a small town librarian. After almost a decade on the job she has had Enough and closes out her savings account of its $1,200 and invests the works in glamorizing herself and a ticket to a Havana cruise. Though now chic and fashionable, her inner librarian is unable to break through and meet any men on the ship until her accidental meeting with a fairly soused Adolphe Menjou.
Stanwyck and Menjou become inseparable and soon blossom into a full-fledged affair that continues back in the states (apparently Stanwyck has moved to the city). Halloween night finds the couple with their own trick or treat - Stanwyck learns Menjou is married just as she was planning to let him know she is with child.
This soap was directed by Frank Capra who occasionally goes on board on directorial "touches" like shooting scenes with faces hidden or from unusual angles but his direction is generally admirable. Stanwyck is terrific as always and what a surprise to see Adolphe Menjou is a romantic lead. Though only 40 at the time, he always seemed older than his years and was seldom cast in romantic male leads during the talkie era. Ralph Bellamy is the third wheel as per usual but this time around he is a surprisingly unpleasant and creepy one as the coarse newspaper man who aims to bring politician Menjou down - unaware they both are interested in Barbara.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the obvious parallels between this story and the far more famous Bette Davis picture NOW VOYAGER made a decade later - a homely woman transforms herself into a beauty and goes on a cruise ship to find love only to have her beau be a married man. The "church mouse" side of Stanwyck's character is abandoned early in the story but it might have explained why she held on for decades for just a part of a man's love. (This film is one of those which while only spanning twenty years has the characters looking ready for the old age home when they would only be in their late forties.)
Viewers might be aghast at Menjou's description of his wife as an "invalid" - Dorothy Peterson gets around mighty fine, if with the help of a cane but presumably this is a discreet illusion to the fact that their relationship is no longer physical given her condition after the car wreck. Also watch for an early scene showing the meanness of Bellamy's character as he hits an office boy's head with an apple core - the kid has to force a smile since it's his boss but when turned away he clearly mouths "son of a bitch" about Bellamy.
FORBIDDEN is not one of Stanwyck's better movies but it's entertaining and has several potent scenes from the excellent character setup of an young old maid on the way to work to the timid girl dining alone on a cruise ship to her final solution for ending Bellamy's hounding of Menjou and as such is definitely worth a look.
Stanwyck and Menjou become inseparable and soon blossom into a full-fledged affair that continues back in the states (apparently Stanwyck has moved to the city). Halloween night finds the couple with their own trick or treat - Stanwyck learns Menjou is married just as she was planning to let him know she is with child.
This soap was directed by Frank Capra who occasionally goes on board on directorial "touches" like shooting scenes with faces hidden or from unusual angles but his direction is generally admirable. Stanwyck is terrific as always and what a surprise to see Adolphe Menjou is a romantic lead. Though only 40 at the time, he always seemed older than his years and was seldom cast in romantic male leads during the talkie era. Ralph Bellamy is the third wheel as per usual but this time around he is a surprisingly unpleasant and creepy one as the coarse newspaper man who aims to bring politician Menjou down - unaware they both are interested in Barbara.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the obvious parallels between this story and the far more famous Bette Davis picture NOW VOYAGER made a decade later - a homely woman transforms herself into a beauty and goes on a cruise ship to find love only to have her beau be a married man. The "church mouse" side of Stanwyck's character is abandoned early in the story but it might have explained why she held on for decades for just a part of a man's love. (This film is one of those which while only spanning twenty years has the characters looking ready for the old age home when they would only be in their late forties.)
Viewers might be aghast at Menjou's description of his wife as an "invalid" - Dorothy Peterson gets around mighty fine, if with the help of a cane but presumably this is a discreet illusion to the fact that their relationship is no longer physical given her condition after the car wreck. Also watch for an early scene showing the meanness of Bellamy's character as he hits an office boy's head with an apple core - the kid has to force a smile since it's his boss but when turned away he clearly mouths "son of a bitch" about Bellamy.
FORBIDDEN is not one of Stanwyck's better movies but it's entertaining and has several potent scenes from the excellent character setup of an young old maid on the way to work to the timid girl dining alone on a cruise ship to her final solution for ending Bellamy's hounding of Menjou and as such is definitely worth a look.
Well-Written & Worth the Watch
mcgee446812 April 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I kept in mind the technology available to the filmmakers in 1932, and was thoroughly impressed by the tale Capra manages to tell here. Stanwyck's character just needed a little thrill and found it on a boat trip to Havana, beginning a love affair that will test her discretion and tact throughout her life. Like a responsive car, the script follows each turn precisely and truthfully, our heroine responding to each new crisis the way we would hope she does. This is what makes the film so impressive; for such an early picture the characters all ring true and there are undeniable moments of early brilliance - my favorite being Stanwyck gunning down her husband to protect her lover's secret. A lot of Capra's favorite character actors he would use again and again in films to come show up here, making it a nice watch for fans of his work. Despite it's age, 'Forbidden' is still an impressive piece of work.
A typical 30's soaper told in a unique style by a master craftsman and a super leading lady.
mark.waltz3 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Frank Capra sure knew how to use his leading ladies. In the case of two of them (Jean Arthur and Barbara Stanwyck), he took them out of the less than memorable films they had been making prior to their first films with him and found ways to utilize their talents and personalities to great effect. With Stanwyck, he got her early on after a few dogs, and brought out a side of her that otherwise might have remained untapped for years. In this film, he takes an oft-made theme (unwed mother involved with a married man) and adds subtle qualities that bring both humour and tears.
Stanwyck is first seen as a frumpy librarian in a small town who suddenly stands up for herself and decides to find life no matter what she does. Then, decked out in early 30's clothes horse fashions, Stanwyck attracts the pity of the staff of an upscale restaurant by asking for a table for one. Behind this well-dressed beauty (shades of Bette Davis's "Now Voyager" character) is a woman still traumatized by her earlier plain Jane persona (and obvious rejection by men) and determined to find romance.
She does find a different kind of love with a drunken man who mistook her room (66) for his (99). That man is none other than the dashing Adolph Menjou, a powerful attorney whom she is unaware is married. She leaves him when she learns the truth, but is pregnant and gives the name "Jane Doe" as her name on the babies' birth certificate. By chance, Menjou finds her, and she is unable to resist him. Then, twists put the child's custody in Menjou's hands which brings about much despair for the fragile Stanwyck. Toss in an aggressive newspaper editor (Ralph Bellamy, playing one of his few unlikable characters) who is enamored of Stanwyck (and is out to destroy Menjou), and the plot twists into melodrama that 30's women audiences craved.
There is a playful relationship between Stanwyck and Menjou that is adorable on screen and lightens up the harsher aspects of the plot. Everybody is excellent, and with the exception of Stanwyck's first scene where she wants to watch her town burn while playing a ukulele, everything is fine. While Stanwyck was still yet on the verge of super-stardom here, it is obvious that there were great things down the pike for her, and she is simply magnetic. Menjou proves why he is still regarded as one of the most dashing leading men of the 1930's and 40's.
Stanwyck is first seen as a frumpy librarian in a small town who suddenly stands up for herself and decides to find life no matter what she does. Then, decked out in early 30's clothes horse fashions, Stanwyck attracts the pity of the staff of an upscale restaurant by asking for a table for one. Behind this well-dressed beauty (shades of Bette Davis's "Now Voyager" character) is a woman still traumatized by her earlier plain Jane persona (and obvious rejection by men) and determined to find romance.
She does find a different kind of love with a drunken man who mistook her room (66) for his (99). That man is none other than the dashing Adolph Menjou, a powerful attorney whom she is unaware is married. She leaves him when she learns the truth, but is pregnant and gives the name "Jane Doe" as her name on the babies' birth certificate. By chance, Menjou finds her, and she is unable to resist him. Then, twists put the child's custody in Menjou's hands which brings about much despair for the fragile Stanwyck. Toss in an aggressive newspaper editor (Ralph Bellamy, playing one of his few unlikable characters) who is enamored of Stanwyck (and is out to destroy Menjou), and the plot twists into melodrama that 30's women audiences craved.
There is a playful relationship between Stanwyck and Menjou that is adorable on screen and lightens up the harsher aspects of the plot. Everybody is excellent, and with the exception of Stanwyck's first scene where she wants to watch her town burn while playing a ukulele, everything is fine. While Stanwyck was still yet on the verge of super-stardom here, it is obvious that there were great things down the pike for her, and she is simply magnetic. Menjou proves why he is still regarded as one of the most dashing leading men of the 1930's and 40's.
Standing By Her Man
movingpicturegal20 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Very melodramatic soap opera about a lonely small town gal named Lulu (called "old lady four eyes" by a couple of local boys) who longs for romance, so takes her savings and sails for a two-week vacation in Havana. She soon meets a drunken Adolphe Menjou who has ended up in her stateroom by mistake - romance ensues. Now here's the rub - it is quite awhile after she has been seeing this man (and they have fallen in love) that she finds out he has given her a fake name - and is married! A baby, plus many more twists and turns to follow.
Well, this is a well-done film, with absorbing plot - plus Barbara Stanwyck gives a real star performance here as Lulu - acting up a storm, she's just great and really helps make this film a good one. Now, there's some things in this film that seem a little nonsensical or odd to me - Lulu is first seen as a sort of librarian/spinster type - but quickly changes into a smartly dressed, attractive lady when she leaves on her trip, and never changes back (the original plot element abandoned). The wife, described as an "invalid" who Menjou is forced to stay with and care for, is first introduced using a cane (just barely) - but she is at all times seen as completely strong and capable (hardly an invalid). And the biggest thing of all is that I really question some of the decisions and sacrifices Lulu is willing to go through all for the sake of this one man - mainly the fact that she seems so ready, willing, and able to leave her child and abandon her role as the child's mother so extremely easily! All in all, though, I found this to be a fine film, well worth seeing.
Well, this is a well-done film, with absorbing plot - plus Barbara Stanwyck gives a real star performance here as Lulu - acting up a storm, she's just great and really helps make this film a good one. Now, there's some things in this film that seem a little nonsensical or odd to me - Lulu is first seen as a sort of librarian/spinster type - but quickly changes into a smartly dressed, attractive lady when she leaves on her trip, and never changes back (the original plot element abandoned). The wife, described as an "invalid" who Menjou is forced to stay with and care for, is first introduced using a cane (just barely) - but she is at all times seen as completely strong and capable (hardly an invalid). And the biggest thing of all is that I really question some of the decisions and sacrifices Lulu is willing to go through all for the sake of this one man - mainly the fact that she seems so ready, willing, and able to leave her child and abandon her role as the child's mother so extremely easily! All in all, though, I found this to be a fine film, well worth seeing.
Very similar to Back Street
HotToastyRag28 October 2018
Here's Forbidden in a nutshell: one-third Back Street, one-third Stella Dallas, and one-third Always Goodbye. And, considering that it came out the same year as Back Street, it doesn't seem to be the most original story in the world. On the other hand, if you like those three movies, you're almost guaranteed to like Forbidden!
Barbara Stanwyck starts the movie as an old maid, bespectacled librarian. Then, in the style of Queen Latifah in Last Holiday, she gets a makeover, quits her job, and closes out her bank account to spend her nest egg on a lavish vacation. While on that vacation, she meets and falls in love with the charming Adolphe Menjou. Their romance in the first part of the movie is so adorable! They have a wonderful natural chemistry with each other, and their situations are sweet and playful. For example, they each take turns miming their gifts of love while the other one claps; Adolphe presents a bouquet of flowers, and Barbara shows him the dinner she's made.
Since that's the beginning of the movie, the audience can expect a conflict. When Adolphe gives her the bad news, it's a tearful scene, but it isn't the end of their romance. The rest of the movie shows how they deal with the obstacle and how through it all, true love is the most powerful force. Sentimental folks will love this one. Film students will also want to check this one out, since director Frank Capra shows off his impressive framing skills in several scenes by placing the camera in interesting places.
Barbara Stanwyck starts the movie as an old maid, bespectacled librarian. Then, in the style of Queen Latifah in Last Holiday, she gets a makeover, quits her job, and closes out her bank account to spend her nest egg on a lavish vacation. While on that vacation, she meets and falls in love with the charming Adolphe Menjou. Their romance in the first part of the movie is so adorable! They have a wonderful natural chemistry with each other, and their situations are sweet and playful. For example, they each take turns miming their gifts of love while the other one claps; Adolphe presents a bouquet of flowers, and Barbara shows him the dinner she's made.
Since that's the beginning of the movie, the audience can expect a conflict. When Adolphe gives her the bad news, it's a tearful scene, but it isn't the end of their romance. The rest of the movie shows how they deal with the obstacle and how through it all, true love is the most powerful force. Sentimental folks will love this one. Film students will also want to check this one out, since director Frank Capra shows off his impressive framing skills in several scenes by placing the camera in interesting places.
The two scenes for me.
Culburn20 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Are the cab ride early on as Bob tries to convince Lulu that the affair can work. She is near hysterics, inconsolable and bolts the cab on into an absolute deluge of rain. He follows, literally begging her to reconsider. She's adamant, won't be swayed and leaves Bob on a park bench (thoroughly vanquished) in the rain, as it rivets down the bill of his hat and onto his overcoat. And get this: the scene stays tracked as Lulu retreats into the rain and disappears. Capra holds it steady, seconds pass, how many? More than enough for me. Lulu returns out of the mist, returns to Bob and the tragedy advances.
The second scene for me is the scene where Lulu murders her husband (Bellamy) in cold blood. All the frustrations wrought upon Lulu, all the settling, all the denial, all the hatred (for marrying him) is loosed upon Bellamy here. The first two shots (mid chest height) surely kill this man, the fact that Lulu goes ahead and empties the pistol into him to requisite clicks on empty chambers with that look of utter contempt only Stanwyck could display exposes the wounded Lulu in bitter truth.
It reminds one of the ending scene in "The Last Gangster" where Edward G. Robinson stops his adversary's stated vow to ruin Robinson's sons bright future thru scandalous charges. Robinson simply counters this stoic threat with the words: "no you won't" and proceeds to empty a pistol into him.
The second scene for me is the scene where Lulu murders her husband (Bellamy) in cold blood. All the frustrations wrought upon Lulu, all the settling, all the denial, all the hatred (for marrying him) is loosed upon Bellamy here. The first two shots (mid chest height) surely kill this man, the fact that Lulu goes ahead and empties the pistol into him to requisite clicks on empty chambers with that look of utter contempt only Stanwyck could display exposes the wounded Lulu in bitter truth.
It reminds one of the ending scene in "The Last Gangster" where Edward G. Robinson stops his adversary's stated vow to ruin Robinson's sons bright future thru scandalous charges. Robinson simply counters this stoic threat with the words: "no you won't" and proceeds to empty a pistol into him.
3 Hankies Beats 2
dougdoepke6 June 2009
Be sure to bring a snorkel so you don't drown in all the soap suds. Okay, it's a weepy from beginning to end, but 30's soap opera doesn't come much slicker than this. LuLu (Stanwyck) has a tropical fling to relieve a humdrum life. The trouble is that she leaves as one but comes back as two, and the father (Menjou) is already married. So what is poor Lulu to do now that she's an un-wed mother and Dad has big political ambitions and a wife. It takes an hour and a half to find out.
Apparently, Columbia studios had the formidable Stanwyck pegged as a 3-hanky heroine since they kept casting her in these sudsy roles. On the other hand, it took hard-boiled Warner Bros. to bring out that tough-cookie inner person we all know and enjoy. Still, she runs the emotional gamut here in fine fashion, persisting from one heartbreak to the next.
Two scenes stick with me. There's an absolutely exquisite horse ride through scalloped fingers of surf filmed in incandescent b&w (Joseph Walker). Anyone doubting the continuing value of b&w should take a look here. The wonderful dreamlike quality serves as a perfect correlate to what Lulu feels during the romantic get-away, and cannot be duplicated in color, at least in my little book.
Then there's that hilarious scene in the newspaper office where the pot-bellied old "Mary Sunshine" explains his 'advice to the lovelorn' column to the new Mary Sunshine (Lulu). He's a hard-bitten old reporter who resembles the column's title about as much as Alfred Hitchcock resembles Shirley Temple. And when he tells her to read seven letters and throw the rest away, you just know the empathetic Lulu will read the whole stack.
Sure, the story hangs together about as well as a Rube Goldberg contraption, but who cares since it all goes down pretty smoothly thanks to Capra's way with a camera and a storyline. Then too, I'm really proud of myself. I got through the 90 minutes with just two hankies on the floor instead of the usual three.
Apparently, Columbia studios had the formidable Stanwyck pegged as a 3-hanky heroine since they kept casting her in these sudsy roles. On the other hand, it took hard-boiled Warner Bros. to bring out that tough-cookie inner person we all know and enjoy. Still, she runs the emotional gamut here in fine fashion, persisting from one heartbreak to the next.
Two scenes stick with me. There's an absolutely exquisite horse ride through scalloped fingers of surf filmed in incandescent b&w (Joseph Walker). Anyone doubting the continuing value of b&w should take a look here. The wonderful dreamlike quality serves as a perfect correlate to what Lulu feels during the romantic get-away, and cannot be duplicated in color, at least in my little book.
Then there's that hilarious scene in the newspaper office where the pot-bellied old "Mary Sunshine" explains his 'advice to the lovelorn' column to the new Mary Sunshine (Lulu). He's a hard-bitten old reporter who resembles the column's title about as much as Alfred Hitchcock resembles Shirley Temple. And when he tells her to read seven letters and throw the rest away, you just know the empathetic Lulu will read the whole stack.
Sure, the story hangs together about as well as a Rube Goldberg contraption, but who cares since it all goes down pretty smoothly thanks to Capra's way with a camera and a storyline. Then too, I'm really proud of myself. I got through the 90 minutes with just two hankies on the floor instead of the usual three.
Forbidden review
JoeytheBrit8 May 2020
Barbara Stanwyck suffers for love in a slick pre-code weepie that sees her somehow losing her child to her politician lover and his wife after posing as her daughter's governess in an attempt to deflect her journalist friend's suspicions about their affair. Most of the plot is utterly ridiculous, but it's also maddeningly watchable thanks to some terrific chemistry between Stanwyck and Adolphe Menjou.
Stanwyck's most masochistic role
Handlinghandel6 June 2007
And that includes "Stella Dallas." Another character in this movie falls her "the world's best loser." She plays it well but it's a far cry from the jazzy characters for which she is probably most famous. When one talks about range, one has only to look at this or "Stella Dallas" (a better known but, in my view, inferior film) and then at "The Lady Eve" and "Ball of Fire." Not to mention "Double Indemnity"! She begins this as a wallflower. Children taunt her as "four-eyes." Even at her most poignant, though, nobody could buy that for the hardy Stanwyck. She goes on a cruise and falls in love. And, oh boy! What a mistake that is! A married man, a child -- and lots more. (She meets married Adolph Menjou on the cruise and the child is born soon after; so this is not giving much away.) Through all of it, she is stoic. She says she's happy but we know she couldn't be.
It's very well done by all concerned.
It's very well done by all concerned.
Still retains some interest today
JamesHitchcock15 February 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Frank Capra is today best remembered for his comedies, often ones with a message celebrating optimism or American patriotism, such as "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" or "It's a Wonderful Life". "Forbidden", however, which dates from rather earlier in his career, is a rather different type of film, although it starts off like a conventional romantic comedy. Lulu Smith, a young librarian, cashes in her life savings and buys a ticket for a cruise to Havana. On board ship, in a classic "meet- cute", she meets a lawyer named Bob Grover after he mistakes her room 66 for his room 99, and a romance soon grows up between them, which continues after they return home. And then, suddenly, the film takes an unexpected turn; Bob confesses to Lulu that he is already married, and unwilling to divorce his invalid wife. This first bombshell is soon followed by another; Lulu is pregnant with their child.
This film is a good example of how the Hollywood of the early thirties was able to deal with subjects which would have been taboo after the introduction of the Production Code in 1934, in this case adultery and unmarried motherhood. When the studio tried to re-release the film in 1935, only three years after it was made, it was refused a certificate by the Hays Office. The film is essentially a melodrama of the sort which became known as a "woman's picture", partly because women were the main target audience for them, but also because the central character was generally a woman, with the male characters being defined in terms of their relationship to her. Besides Bob, the principal male character is Al Holland, a young journalist who is also romantically interested in Lulu.
In common with normal "woman's picture" conventions, the woman is not only the central character but also the most sympathetic one. Despite her moral lapses, Lulu is the self-sacrificing heroine who will do anything to avoid hurting Bob or their daughter Roberta, even allowing Bob and his wife Helen to adopt Roberta. (Helen has no idea about her husband's affair or about the little girl's true parentage). Bob himself is weak and hypocritical, whereas Al is really the villain of the piece. In many films from this period campaigning journalists were often portrayed as heroic crusaders for democracy, but Al is a mean-spirited individual with a powerful dislike of Bob, who has political ambitions. This dislike is not rooted in sexual jealousy- for most of the picture Al does not know about Bob's relationship with Lulu- nor is it based upon political differences. (We never learn exactly what Bob's politics are, whether he is left-wing or right-wing, a Republican or a Democrat). It seems to be based upon nothing more than a long-standing grudge. At first Al's campaign has no effect on Bob's fortunes- he rises to become District Attorney, City Mayor, a Senator and eventually State Governor, but eventually Al, by now an influential editor, discovers the secret which he believes will destroy Bob's career.
The story takes place over a timeline of more than twenty years- by the end Roberta is a young woman about to get married- so the early scenes are presumably supposed to take place around 1910. There is, however, no attempt to create an authentic period look- the costumes, interiors and technology remain those of the early 1930s throughout. This lack of attention to period detail was quite common in films of this era, probably for financial reasons; "The Shopworn Angel" is another example of a film ostensibly set in the 1910s but looking more like the thirties. (That film too starts off like a romantic comedy and then turns into a serious drama).
The story does not always flow smoothly, proceeding jerkily rather than smoothly, with the plot advancing more through a series of sudden revelations than through logical development. We are, for example, led to believe that Lulu and Bob's relationship is non-sexual and then suddenly learn that she is pregnant by him. This, however, is probably due to the moral constraints imposed on the scriptwriter by the conventions of the day; although the Production Code was not yet in force in 1932 there was still a limit to what the censors would allow.
In common with most films of the early thirties, "Forbidden" was made in the "filmed theatre" style, with most of the scenes taking place indoors and being shot on a studio set, and with a greater emphasis on dialogue than on physical action except in one key scene. This style was forced on the studios by factors both financial (money was tight during the Great Depression) and technical (shooting on location was difficult during the early days of sound), but it was a style well-suited to romantic melodramas like this one. If one makes allowances for the fact that the cinema at this period often used a rather mannered, non- naturalistic style of acting, the cast all play their roles well, especially Barbara Stanwyck as Lulu. This is not in the same class as some of Capra's later comedies, but it is still a film which retains some interest today. 7/10
This film is a good example of how the Hollywood of the early thirties was able to deal with subjects which would have been taboo after the introduction of the Production Code in 1934, in this case adultery and unmarried motherhood. When the studio tried to re-release the film in 1935, only three years after it was made, it was refused a certificate by the Hays Office. The film is essentially a melodrama of the sort which became known as a "woman's picture", partly because women were the main target audience for them, but also because the central character was generally a woman, with the male characters being defined in terms of their relationship to her. Besides Bob, the principal male character is Al Holland, a young journalist who is also romantically interested in Lulu.
In common with normal "woman's picture" conventions, the woman is not only the central character but also the most sympathetic one. Despite her moral lapses, Lulu is the self-sacrificing heroine who will do anything to avoid hurting Bob or their daughter Roberta, even allowing Bob and his wife Helen to adopt Roberta. (Helen has no idea about her husband's affair or about the little girl's true parentage). Bob himself is weak and hypocritical, whereas Al is really the villain of the piece. In many films from this period campaigning journalists were often portrayed as heroic crusaders for democracy, but Al is a mean-spirited individual with a powerful dislike of Bob, who has political ambitions. This dislike is not rooted in sexual jealousy- for most of the picture Al does not know about Bob's relationship with Lulu- nor is it based upon political differences. (We never learn exactly what Bob's politics are, whether he is left-wing or right-wing, a Republican or a Democrat). It seems to be based upon nothing more than a long-standing grudge. At first Al's campaign has no effect on Bob's fortunes- he rises to become District Attorney, City Mayor, a Senator and eventually State Governor, but eventually Al, by now an influential editor, discovers the secret which he believes will destroy Bob's career.
The story takes place over a timeline of more than twenty years- by the end Roberta is a young woman about to get married- so the early scenes are presumably supposed to take place around 1910. There is, however, no attempt to create an authentic period look- the costumes, interiors and technology remain those of the early 1930s throughout. This lack of attention to period detail was quite common in films of this era, probably for financial reasons; "The Shopworn Angel" is another example of a film ostensibly set in the 1910s but looking more like the thirties. (That film too starts off like a romantic comedy and then turns into a serious drama).
The story does not always flow smoothly, proceeding jerkily rather than smoothly, with the plot advancing more through a series of sudden revelations than through logical development. We are, for example, led to believe that Lulu and Bob's relationship is non-sexual and then suddenly learn that she is pregnant by him. This, however, is probably due to the moral constraints imposed on the scriptwriter by the conventions of the day; although the Production Code was not yet in force in 1932 there was still a limit to what the censors would allow.
In common with most films of the early thirties, "Forbidden" was made in the "filmed theatre" style, with most of the scenes taking place indoors and being shot on a studio set, and with a greater emphasis on dialogue than on physical action except in one key scene. This style was forced on the studios by factors both financial (money was tight during the Great Depression) and technical (shooting on location was difficult during the early days of sound), but it was a style well-suited to romantic melodramas like this one. If one makes allowances for the fact that the cinema at this period often used a rather mannered, non- naturalistic style of acting, the cast all play their roles well, especially Barbara Stanwyck as Lulu. This is not in the same class as some of Capra's later comedies, but it is still a film which retains some interest today. 7/10
Capra and Stanwyck
Michael_Elliott26 February 2008
Forbidden (1932)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Frank Capra directed this incredibly stupid film about a shy librarian (Barbara Stanwyck) who takes a cruise and meets a seamanly nice politician (Adoplhe Menjou). The two eventually fall in love but then the politician must admit that he's already married. To make matters even worse, the librarian is pregnant and a hot shot reporter (Ralph Bellamy) wants the story. This film takes place over a twenty-year period but in the end it really doesn't work out too well. The three stars all done very nice work, although it's hard to believe Stanwyck in her role as a ugly librarian. Bellamy steals the film as the fast talking reporter who spends his life trying to bring the politician down. The film is somewhat charming at the start but once all the politics come into play it grows quite tiresome. And then, there's the incredibly stupid and horribly written ending, which has to be one of the worst from any film I've seen. I won't ruin it for you but what Stanwyck does at the end is just downright stupid and goes against everything that came before it.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Frank Capra directed this incredibly stupid film about a shy librarian (Barbara Stanwyck) who takes a cruise and meets a seamanly nice politician (Adoplhe Menjou). The two eventually fall in love but then the politician must admit that he's already married. To make matters even worse, the librarian is pregnant and a hot shot reporter (Ralph Bellamy) wants the story. This film takes place over a twenty-year period but in the end it really doesn't work out too well. The three stars all done very nice work, although it's hard to believe Stanwyck in her role as a ugly librarian. Bellamy steals the film as the fast talking reporter who spends his life trying to bring the politician down. The film is somewhat charming at the start but once all the politics come into play it grows quite tiresome. And then, there's the incredibly stupid and horribly written ending, which has to be one of the worst from any film I've seen. I won't ruin it for you but what Stanwyck does at the end is just downright stupid and goes against everything that came before it.
Very Melodramatic
chewning21 May 2009
For a 1932 film, this had a lot of good moments. I thought the scenes with Roberta as a baby were wonderful -- very good direction. But then, it's Frank Capra.
What I couldn't really follow was the point of the first five minutes of the movie. We know she's going on a vacation with her life savings, but why set her up as a small town librarian and then never make reference to that part of her life again in the movie? Seemed unnecessary and a little confusing. And who names their daughter Lulu? But the best part of the movie -- the best worst part -- is how old everybody gets after only about sixteen years. Stanwyck's character is probably only about 40 at the end of the movie, but 40 in 1932 is like 70, clearly, so they pile on the make-up and give her a grey wig. At least she's not wearing a shawl and walking with a cane. She actually carries off those scenes well, and she looks gorgeous. I really enjoyed it.
What I couldn't really follow was the point of the first five minutes of the movie. We know she's going on a vacation with her life savings, but why set her up as a small town librarian and then never make reference to that part of her life again in the movie? Seemed unnecessary and a little confusing. And who names their daughter Lulu? But the best part of the movie -- the best worst part -- is how old everybody gets after only about sixteen years. Stanwyck's character is probably only about 40 at the end of the movie, but 40 in 1932 is like 70, clearly, so they pile on the make-up and give her a grey wig. At least she's not wearing a shawl and walking with a cane. She actually carries off those scenes well, and she looks gorgeous. I really enjoyed it.
Soap, Politics, in About That Order.
rmax30482330 August 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Those of us who came of age when Barbara Stanwyck projected an image of hand-shaped steel on screen -- a lesbian, a stern matriarch, or whatever -- may not be aware of how fragile and accommodating she was in her earlier films. Never a sex symbol or an actress who shot out the lights, her performances were always reliable and sometimes quite accomplished, as in "Double Indemnity." Alas, her earlier movies don't have the appeal today that they once had. In the early 1930s there were "women's pictures," and this is one of them. At the time there were only radio serials like "The Romance of Helen Trent," but now anyone interested in romantic dramas can turn to afternoon soap operas or LMN.
In "Forbidden," Stanwyck is a homely librarian (meaning mainly that she wears glasses and wears drab garments) who rejects the advances of a newspaper editor, Ralph Bellamy, and decides to take a fling on a Caribbean vacation. On the cruise she meets Adolph Menjou, a debonair rising politician who has an affair with Stanwyck (don't they all?) and this results in a child. Pretty risqué for those days.
The problem is that Menjou is a married man with a crippled wife and -- well, all kinds of complications ensue. They end with the wife adopting the illegitimate child and providing her with a good, substantial home and a college education.
Now, Ralph Bellamy has not disappeared from the story. He hires Stanwyck and she finally decides to marry him, but not out of love. I was certain her affections would be transferred to Bellamy, who would turn out to be an understanding and forgiving kind of guy. But no. For the first and last time in my entire life I was wrong. Bellamy digs up the illicit connection between Stanwyck and Menjour (who are still seeing each other) and intends to expose Menjou out of spite. Menjou is now running for governor and I think we all know what that means. I don't have to draw you a picture. A couple of slugs from Stanwyck's .38 solves the problem. But governor Menjour, on his death bed, guilt ridden, signs a confession of all his misdeeds and leaves half of all he own to Stanwyck. Ever the stout heart, she rips up the bequest and throws it in the trash. With a brave smile, but without any money or family or social standing, she strides off to face the future, her honor untarnished. (I hope she does better than I did under similar circumstances.) It's not a dumb movie. The director, Frank Capra, who brought us a couple of gems ten years later and a good series of war-time documentaries, is no dummy. He's a populist but not a nasty minded one, and if here he was still learning his craft, his generosity and his respect for his adopted country shows. (He was born in Sicily.) "Forbidden" will interest most those who are interested in intrigues and the social dynamics of small groups of acquaintances. It's also of historical value because we see Stanwyck before she became the Stanwyck so many are familiar with from "The Big Valley" or whatever it was, and because this is one of Frank Capra's earlier efforts.
In "Forbidden," Stanwyck is a homely librarian (meaning mainly that she wears glasses and wears drab garments) who rejects the advances of a newspaper editor, Ralph Bellamy, and decides to take a fling on a Caribbean vacation. On the cruise she meets Adolph Menjou, a debonair rising politician who has an affair with Stanwyck (don't they all?) and this results in a child. Pretty risqué for those days.
The problem is that Menjou is a married man with a crippled wife and -- well, all kinds of complications ensue. They end with the wife adopting the illegitimate child and providing her with a good, substantial home and a college education.
Now, Ralph Bellamy has not disappeared from the story. He hires Stanwyck and she finally decides to marry him, but not out of love. I was certain her affections would be transferred to Bellamy, who would turn out to be an understanding and forgiving kind of guy. But no. For the first and last time in my entire life I was wrong. Bellamy digs up the illicit connection between Stanwyck and Menjour (who are still seeing each other) and intends to expose Menjou out of spite. Menjou is now running for governor and I think we all know what that means. I don't have to draw you a picture. A couple of slugs from Stanwyck's .38 solves the problem. But governor Menjour, on his death bed, guilt ridden, signs a confession of all his misdeeds and leaves half of all he own to Stanwyck. Ever the stout heart, she rips up the bequest and throws it in the trash. With a brave smile, but without any money or family or social standing, she strides off to face the future, her honor untarnished. (I hope she does better than I did under similar circumstances.) It's not a dumb movie. The director, Frank Capra, who brought us a couple of gems ten years later and a good series of war-time documentaries, is no dummy. He's a populist but not a nasty minded one, and if here he was still learning his craft, his generosity and his respect for his adopted country shows. (He was born in Sicily.) "Forbidden" will interest most those who are interested in intrigues and the social dynamics of small groups of acquaintances. It's also of historical value because we see Stanwyck before she became the Stanwyck so many are familiar with from "The Big Valley" or whatever it was, and because this is one of Frank Capra's earlier efforts.
Frobidden Fruit
sol12186 February 2007
Warning: Spoilers
(There are Spoilers) Heart wrenchingly effective 1930's tear-jerker that grabs you right from the start and never lets go until the ending credits. With you hoping some way that for once, no matter how corny and unbelievable, that there will be a Hollywood-style happy ending. 25 year-old Barbara Stanwyck plays the young librarian Lulu Smith who just had enough of the dull and boring country life that she's been leading and decides to take her life savings, $1,200.00,and go on a Caribbean cruise.
Meeting this middle-aged man Bob Grover, Adolphe Menjou, when he got his cabin room mixed up with hers Lulu ends up spending her vacation time in Havana with Bob who together paint the town red. Back in the states the two fall madly in love with each other but when it comes to tie the knot Bob has a confession to make to Lulu. The fact is that he's not only married but involved in the states politics where leaving his crippled and loving wife Helen, Dorothy Peterson, would destroy his political career. In one of the most amazing and explosive scenes involving a breakup of a couple Lulu practically throws Bob out of her apartment as he, knowing that he's the guilty party, pleads for forgiveness telling an hurt and outraged Lulu that his door will always be opened to her.
Time marches on as Bob becomes the states elected Attorney General. Lulu alone and almost homeless has Bob's baby, Roberta, whom she at first refuses to see in the maternity ward because the child reminds her of him. Still holding a flame for Lulu Bob tracks her down and finds out that she's alone, living with her and his three year-old daughter Roberta. He then continues his secret and illicit affair with her where at the same time puts on a false face, to the public, that he's a happily married man.
The bottom falls out of both Bob and Lulu's secret relationship when the sleaze-ball editor of that yellow rag "The Record" Al Holland, Ralph Bellamy, spots little Roberta with Lulu. Bob who's political career, for some reason or another, Holland's determined to destroy and smells, with the rat-like instincts that he has, a big and provocative story at Bob Grover's expense. Being told by Lulu, whom the creep secretly has the hots for, that she's the governess of Roberta who's Bob and Helen's adopted daughter Holland go back to his office to get the truth about just who little Reborta is. This has her real mother Lulu, who get a job at the paper as it's lovelorn communists, go check out the mothers background which just happens to be herself!
In the end the you know what hits the fan with Bob, even though he's dying from an incurable and unnamed illness, getting elected governor of the state. Holland whom Lulu married, in order to keep the slime ball from exposing her and her and Bob's 19 year-old daughter Roberta, gets the official hospital records that his wife Lulu is both Roberta's mother and that Bob is her dad. Even more explosive Roberta was the results of an illicit affair between the two! Instead of acting like a normal and feeling human being and keeping it all quite Holland runs out as if his pants were on fire to get the big story to hit the streets, via his paper, that morning. Instead the lowlife creep gets blasted by his now totally hysterical, from him beating her up and about to expose Roberta, wife Lulu.
Really touching final with a dying governor Bob Grover pardoning his lover and mother of his daughter Lulu from a life-sentence, for gunning down Al Holland, and leaving half of his estate in her name. Lulu now old and with her deciding to keep the truth from Roberta, as well as the widowed Mrs. Grover, to herself and alone in the world does whats best for everyone. Not wanting to destroy Bob's reputation, by him being a man who cheated on his wife, Lulu both honorably and unselfishly tears up Bob's hand written last will and testament, throwing it in a city garbage can as he movie ends.
Schmaltzy yet powerful film about a love that wasn't meant to be. In the end it showed those involved in it, Lulu & Bob, that the truth as painful as it would be, like Castor or Cod Liver oil, would have been the best medicine to cure it. The truth in the end would have saved both their lives, and ironically even Bob's wife Helen, from the destruction that was to later engulf them by keeping it a secret.
Meeting this middle-aged man Bob Grover, Adolphe Menjou, when he got his cabin room mixed up with hers Lulu ends up spending her vacation time in Havana with Bob who together paint the town red. Back in the states the two fall madly in love with each other but when it comes to tie the knot Bob has a confession to make to Lulu. The fact is that he's not only married but involved in the states politics where leaving his crippled and loving wife Helen, Dorothy Peterson, would destroy his political career. In one of the most amazing and explosive scenes involving a breakup of a couple Lulu practically throws Bob out of her apartment as he, knowing that he's the guilty party, pleads for forgiveness telling an hurt and outraged Lulu that his door will always be opened to her.
Time marches on as Bob becomes the states elected Attorney General. Lulu alone and almost homeless has Bob's baby, Roberta, whom she at first refuses to see in the maternity ward because the child reminds her of him. Still holding a flame for Lulu Bob tracks her down and finds out that she's alone, living with her and his three year-old daughter Roberta. He then continues his secret and illicit affair with her where at the same time puts on a false face, to the public, that he's a happily married man.
The bottom falls out of both Bob and Lulu's secret relationship when the sleaze-ball editor of that yellow rag "The Record" Al Holland, Ralph Bellamy, spots little Roberta with Lulu. Bob who's political career, for some reason or another, Holland's determined to destroy and smells, with the rat-like instincts that he has, a big and provocative story at Bob Grover's expense. Being told by Lulu, whom the creep secretly has the hots for, that she's the governess of Roberta who's Bob and Helen's adopted daughter Holland go back to his office to get the truth about just who little Reborta is. This has her real mother Lulu, who get a job at the paper as it's lovelorn communists, go check out the mothers background which just happens to be herself!
In the end the you know what hits the fan with Bob, even though he's dying from an incurable and unnamed illness, getting elected governor of the state. Holland whom Lulu married, in order to keep the slime ball from exposing her and her and Bob's 19 year-old daughter Roberta, gets the official hospital records that his wife Lulu is both Roberta's mother and that Bob is her dad. Even more explosive Roberta was the results of an illicit affair between the two! Instead of acting like a normal and feeling human being and keeping it all quite Holland runs out as if his pants were on fire to get the big story to hit the streets, via his paper, that morning. Instead the lowlife creep gets blasted by his now totally hysterical, from him beating her up and about to expose Roberta, wife Lulu.
Really touching final with a dying governor Bob Grover pardoning his lover and mother of his daughter Lulu from a life-sentence, for gunning down Al Holland, and leaving half of his estate in her name. Lulu now old and with her deciding to keep the truth from Roberta, as well as the widowed Mrs. Grover, to herself and alone in the world does whats best for everyone. Not wanting to destroy Bob's reputation, by him being a man who cheated on his wife, Lulu both honorably and unselfishly tears up Bob's hand written last will and testament, throwing it in a city garbage can as he movie ends.
Schmaltzy yet powerful film about a love that wasn't meant to be. In the end it showed those involved in it, Lulu & Bob, that the truth as painful as it would be, like Castor or Cod Liver oil, would have been the best medicine to cure it. The truth in the end would have saved both their lives, and ironically even Bob's wife Helen, from the destruction that was to later engulf them by keeping it a secret.
Barbara Stanwyck excels in melodrama
SnoopyStyle18 May 2015
Lulu Smith (Barbara Stanwyck) is pitied as a small town spinster librarian. She spends all of her savings on a cruise to Cuba where nobody knows her. The single gal garners more pity from the ship's crew. She finds a drunken Bob Grover in her room and soon falls for him. She become a librarian at a city newspaper. She is pursued by amorous reporter Al Holland. Grover reveals that he's married and he can't divorce her invalid wife. She breaks up with him despite being pregnant. Years later, Grover is the district attorney butting heads with the now city editor Holland. Grover tracks down Lulu and adopts their daughter Roberta as his own to avoid a scandal dug up by Holland. Lulu is taken in as the nanny. Grover's wife Helen is mostly recovered and happy to have the new baby. She's not impressed with Lulu and replaces her. Holland hires Lulu to write the advise column.
It's a melodrama from director Frank Capra. Some of it would seem wrong in modern terms. Barbara Stanwyck makes her character interesting and not just a victim. Adolphe Menjou is not nearly compelling enough to be the romantic lead. He feels like a low level functionary and no more than that. This is a melodrama of its era and can't be faulted for some of its old fashion ideals. I doubt it's anything out of the ordinary back in the day. It is Stanwyck that makes this a better movie than it ought to be.
It's a melodrama from director Frank Capra. Some of it would seem wrong in modern terms. Barbara Stanwyck makes her character interesting and not just a victim. Adolphe Menjou is not nearly compelling enough to be the romantic lead. He feels like a low level functionary and no more than that. This is a melodrama of its era and can't be faulted for some of its old fashion ideals. I doubt it's anything out of the ordinary back in the day. It is Stanwyck that makes this a better movie than it ought to be.
One of Capra's Best Films
Hollywood_Yoda3 November 2018
Saw this film on TCM several years ago, and it's stuck with me since. For the period in which this film was made, I'm surprised it was even made at all; Forbidden is a pretty risque film for the era. Having no film rating system in place at the time and the overall morality of the era, it's one of the more obscure films.
But Frank Capra (of It's a Wonderful Life fame) directed the film, and it's beautifully directed. With a cast including Barbara Stanwyck and Adolphe Menjou, the acting was great. Forbidden is truly a timeless tale of love and lust and being true to yourself and how far one will go for a little happiness.
If you look for this film on DVD, it's part of Frank Capra's early collection set. Not sure if TCM still runs the film anymore. But it's a great use of 90 minutes. Enjoy!
But Frank Capra (of It's a Wonderful Life fame) directed the film, and it's beautifully directed. With a cast including Barbara Stanwyck and Adolphe Menjou, the acting was great. Forbidden is truly a timeless tale of love and lust and being true to yourself and how far one will go for a little happiness.
If you look for this film on DVD, it's part of Frank Capra's early collection set. Not sure if TCM still runs the film anymore. But it's a great use of 90 minutes. Enjoy!
Mediocre film buoyed by good performances
MissSimonetta7 March 2022
A lonely librarian and a frustrated district attorney fall in love. The problem? He's married-- and married to a decent woman with health problems. Despite a child and the love they bear one another, the two lovers remain apart for fear of scandal.
FORBIDDEN feels like pre-code Hollywood on autopilot with its illicit love story and long-suffering single mother. Stanwyck and Menjou are good as the lovers, giving their stock characters more dignity and distinction than the script necessarily does. Small moments like the lovers' horsing around before dinner humanize this stock tale of adultery and nobility. The story is melodramatic in the extreme and just sort of lumbers along the 85-minute runtime. It's not an unpleasant watch, but Stanwyck and director Frank Capra produced much more interesting work elsewhere.
FORBIDDEN feels like pre-code Hollywood on autopilot with its illicit love story and long-suffering single mother. Stanwyck and Menjou are good as the lovers, giving their stock characters more dignity and distinction than the script necessarily does. Small moments like the lovers' horsing around before dinner humanize this stock tale of adultery and nobility. The story is melodramatic in the extreme and just sort of lumbers along the 85-minute runtime. It's not an unpleasant watch, but Stanwyck and director Frank Capra produced much more interesting work elsewhere.
A highly accomplished and moving piece of film-making!
JohnHowardReid12 February 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Acting by the four principals is so convincing, and the backgrounds to the story are so realistically and sharply observed that any reservations the viewer might have about the familiarity or melodramatic nature of the plot are soon swept aside.
In a totally unsympathetic part, Ralph Bellamy gives the most memorable performance of his career. He was soon to be typecast as a prissily comic "other man", but there's nothing but the most cynical humor to be derived from his "other suitor" role here. He's a supremely vicious, thoroughly nasty muck-raker who sadistically revels in his "job".
Commendably forsaking Hollywood glamor, Barbara Stanwyck plays the "Plain Jane" librarian with subtly involving skill. Even Adolphe Menjou who is characteristically yet suitably snappy in his early scenes, so warms into the character that we genuinely feel for him when he literally and symbolically takes off the mask, when he finds his love again, when he is confronted by Bellamy in the park, when he chases after Stanwyck, bundles her into a cab and is then left despondently sitting in the rain. His deathbed scene is as heartfelt as they come. And the movie's final shot as Stanwyck's insignificant and unnoticed figure is swallowed up in the scurrying crowds is easily the most shatteringly intense Capra ever achieved, - more memorable even than that final cut of Margo's aging face in Lost Horizon.
Aside from Dorothy Peterson's duped wife and Myrna Fresholtz's remarkably naturalistic toddler, the other players have little to do, though Harry Holman impresses in his cameo as the retiring lovelorn columnist.
Capra has directed with flair, skill, imagination and consummate expertise. His compositions and camera movement are never less than desirably dramatic. And he has wrung appealing portrayals from nearly all his players, no matter how high or humble. Perhaps Henry Armetta over-caricatures the "romantic" waiter, but Mr Armetta was never noted for his subtlety.
In short, an intensely moving experience that seems even as I write these lines at the end of January 2018 to be cutting mighty close to the American political bone.
Clumsy in a few spots, but noteworthy for tackling delicate topics
vincentlynch-moonoi22 July 2012
Warning: Spoilers
There are some nice touches to this Frank Capra film, including the opening scenes which have some humor. However, this is pre-code and not "Capracorn", so it will probably not be what you expect from a Fran Capra film. The opening photography is quite nice, as well (at least for 1932).
There are also some problems. Barbara Stanwyck was 25 when she made this film. The leading man -- Adolphe Menjou -- was 42...and the age difference really shows. However, it's interesting to watch Menjou as a leading man, rather than the character actor he became in later life...although I much prefer him as the older character actor. The makeup man should have received a retroactive Oscar for his makeup of Menjou as he ages 20+ years toward the end of the film. Menjou in old makeup looked exactly like Menjou himself looked 20+ years after this film was made.
Barbara Stanwyck is not as smooth in this film as some of her others in the same general time period, but I have come to appreciate her much more as I have seen a few of her early roles.
I give Capra very low marks here for the way he misdirected Ralph Bellamy. If it weren't for the otherwise sensitivity of the story line, it would have ruined the film. If you took the stereotype of a city editor of a newspaper and put it on steroids...well, that's how badly that role is played in this film. And I don't blame Bellamy. This is nothing like any other Bellamy performance I have ever seen. And even if it was Bellamy that goofed, a good director should have seen the excess. My guess is that Bellamy played it as Capra directed it. One of the rare times I would say, "Shame on you, Frank Capra." To some degree, the crusading editor should be a good guy, where Menjou (who has a mistress, fathered a daughter by that mistress, all while married to a woman partly crippled in an auto accident when he was driving) should be the bad guy. But Bellamy's part is played so badly, you end up rooting for the philanderer.
This story was allowed to explore topics not seen for many years after the code became strictly enforced. So while the script is clumsy in a few places (after all, talkies were still immature in 1932), it's quite a captivating story, and I recommend it...at least once.
There are also some problems. Barbara Stanwyck was 25 when she made this film. The leading man -- Adolphe Menjou -- was 42...and the age difference really shows. However, it's interesting to watch Menjou as a leading man, rather than the character actor he became in later life...although I much prefer him as the older character actor. The makeup man should have received a retroactive Oscar for his makeup of Menjou as he ages 20+ years toward the end of the film. Menjou in old makeup looked exactly like Menjou himself looked 20+ years after this film was made.
Barbara Stanwyck is not as smooth in this film as some of her others in the same general time period, but I have come to appreciate her much more as I have seen a few of her early roles.
I give Capra very low marks here for the way he misdirected Ralph Bellamy. If it weren't for the otherwise sensitivity of the story line, it would have ruined the film. If you took the stereotype of a city editor of a newspaper and put it on steroids...well, that's how badly that role is played in this film. And I don't blame Bellamy. This is nothing like any other Bellamy performance I have ever seen. And even if it was Bellamy that goofed, a good director should have seen the excess. My guess is that Bellamy played it as Capra directed it. One of the rare times I would say, "Shame on you, Frank Capra." To some degree, the crusading editor should be a good guy, where Menjou (who has a mistress, fathered a daughter by that mistress, all while married to a woman partly crippled in an auto accident when he was driving) should be the bad guy. But Bellamy's part is played so badly, you end up rooting for the philanderer.
This story was allowed to explore topics not seen for many years after the code became strictly enforced. So while the script is clumsy in a few places (after all, talkies were still immature in 1932), it's quite a captivating story, and I recommend it...at least once.
time stands still!!
mukava99128 March 2007
What struck me about this film is the fact that although the story spans about 20 years, the hairstyles, clothes, cars, furniture and general infrastructure remain steadfastly "1932" throughout. Makes me wonder why they didn't start the film in 1912 - budget concerns over the cost of 1912 production values? Anyway, this melodrama is pretty routine for its time - contrived, fast-moving plot structure dealing with "naughty" subject matter, in this case cohabitation outside wedlock and its consequences. Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou and Ralph Bellamy are all quite arresting in their roles and there are some nice turns of dialog and at least one memorable camera angle during an emotional scene in which the only visible part of Stanwyck's face - mostly concealed behind Menjou's shoulder - is the area around her right eye, filmed through the spaces between balusters on a staircase. Whether this scene was meant to reflect the shadowy nature of the couple's relationship or just a way to make the scene more fun to watch, it's a standout.
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