A Mulher Proibida

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.