Mon passé défendu

No, this isn't a masterpiece of a movie. Far from it. But I didn't find it quite as horrible as some reviewers.

This movie is based on the Polan Banks novel, "Carriage". I haven't read the book so I can't comment on whether this adaptation is accurate. It does feel like there are some missing details that often get cut in an adaptation to keep a movie's running time to a modest length. However, this movie runs quite short (at 1 hour 15 minutes) and they certainly could've included more than they did.

I wasn't as confused as other reviewers about Barbara Beaurevel's (Ava Gardner) forbidden past. It involves the fact that she is Carrie Crandall's granddaughter. Mrs. Crandall is known as a "notorious" woman in New Orleans. She married a gambler who promptly left her. She had a daughter (Barbara's mother)who she then gave another name and sent to be raised in a convent in order to protect her. The attorney, Mr. Toplady, who is sent to find Barbara (in order to pass on the inheritance that has been left her) states that Mrs. Crandall would do anything to provide for her daughter. I think it is only natural to assume this meant she became a prostitute or Madame. With this being New Orleans and the fact that she hooked up with a gambler - this is not too far-fetched. Barbara's mother then met and married affluent Mr. Beaurevel (Barbara's father). What I wonder is what ever happened to Barbara's parents? Why is she in the care of her Aunt? Again, these are items probably explained in the novel but cut from the movie.

Ava is perfectly lovely as usual. There are a couple times when her acting was quite good. I liked when Mitchum's character walks away from her on the terrace at the dance. Watch Ava's very subtle but effective facial expressions (an almost undetectable raise of an eyebrow and a few lip quivers). She could've easily overacted her hurt and anger but is wonderfully subtle and yet still powerfully conveys the emotions.

I did find it hard to believe Mitchum in his occupational role as do good medical researcher - willing to work for low pay for a good cause. Its obvious he was a street kid from New York who had to gamble his way through college. Its hard to believe he would have acquired noble aspirations and not just gone after money. Plus he is such a notorious cad is most of his roles - its hard to buy his noble speech to Ava at the end - "if you do all these things you might turn out to be quite a woman." But otherwise, I do like the chemistry between the two characters.

I think there are some interesting elements to the plot - I like the unexpected event towards the end. It adds an unexpected twist. But apart from this, the dialogue itself is quite weak. My other complaint is that the musical score is rather forgettable and could've done much more to enhance the mood and feel of New Orleans and the grand ole' South. But I still think the movie is worth a look, especially for Ava.

The film is much too short .A melodrama demands lavish details ,mainly when it deals with a "forbidden" past.Here Gardner's grandma's racy past is only skimmed over.Her relationship with Mitchum -not convincing as a professor-makes me think of a poor man' s "Jezebel" .And Mitchum's character's attitude does not make much sense when he come s back with a wife.Besides the ending I-hope-she-will -mend-her-ways is unworthy of a great melodrama :never Sirk,Stahl , Minnelli or Wyler would have ended one of their works that way.Ava Gardner is for me the most beautiful actress that has ever been but there are so many works to remember her,better than this one!

This movie is not great. Just how many boring movies did Howard Hughes make? But it does have two of the beautiful and fascinating stars of the Hollywood Golden Age: Ava Gardner and Robert Mitchum. Melvyn Douglas (who doesn't look so good in this) plays Ava's fey playboy cousin. There are a couple of good lines. The plot is slim and the movie is not long. Only 71 minutes, for those with a short attention span.

We're never told exactly what Ava's forbidden past is, but it has to do with her grandmother. Was she a prostitute? Maybe it's supposed to be ambiguous.

The man who directed it made the 1940s "Jane Eyre" with Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine and also the Disney "Mary Poppins."

Robert Mitchum and Ava Gardner make for handsome leads in this drama, but both seem out of place in this costume drama set a post-Civil War New Orleans. Gardner is spurned by Mitchum, but when she suddenly comes into wealth, she decides to use her money to win back Mitchum and exact her revenge. Mitchum is one of my favorite actors, but this is not his sort of picture. Gardner too for that matter. The leads make this film worth watching, but just barely.

Romantic melodrama hung with Spanish moss, My Forbidden Past is so much gaudy claptrap. Taking several actors who made their names in the hot crucible of film noir and plunking them into a tired, costumed period-piece showed perverse ingenuity. The plot involves duplicitous machinations within a love...trapezoid?...in New Orleans at some vague juncture between the Surrender at Appomatox and the Guns of August, 1914.

Both Robert Mitchum and Ava Gardner, as the "good" lovers, flail around like fish out of water; the best performances come from the skunks: Melvyn Douglas, Lucile Watson and, especially, Janis Carter, as Gardner's rival (and in the same league of tough cookies; she has been called, from her relative few appearances, the "poor man's Barbara Stanwyck").

The most baffling part of the movie concerns Gardner's deceased grandmother, whose name MUST NOT BE UTTERED! Mixed blood? It's just left that she was a "notorious" woman -- what, a voodoo priestess? Her life story sounds like better watching than these silly 70 minutes.