49 reviews
The actors rise above the jumbled script....
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.
Despite a poor script, you still feel the hand of a great movie director
"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.
- fredyfriedlander-1
- Apr 1, 2005
- Permalink
A fine melodrama.
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
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
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
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
A typical 30's soaper told in a unique style by a master craftsman and a super leading lady.
- mark.waltz
- Mar 2, 2011
- Permalink
Standing By Her Man
- movingpicturegal
- Mar 19, 2007
- Permalink
3 Hankies Beats 2
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.
- dougdoepke
- Jun 5, 2009
- Permalink
Very similar to Back Street
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.
- HotToastyRag
- Oct 27, 2018
- Permalink
The two scenes for me.
Forbidden review
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.
- JoeytheBrit
- May 7, 2020
- Permalink
Stanwyck's most masochistic role
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.
- Handlinghandel
- Jun 5, 2007
- Permalink
Still retains some interest today
- JamesHitchcock
- Feb 14, 2013
- Permalink
Very Melodramatic
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.
Another emotional roller-coaster for Stanwyck...
Unkissed librarian (her hair pulled back in a stereotypical bun) gets the proverbial makeover (including new fashions) and boards a cruise to Havana; while shipboard, she attracts the romantic attentions of a witty, charming--and married!--man. Their love affair is fraught with many complications over the years, the most outlandish of which involves Lulu the Librarian's clandestine pregnancy and, later, acting as her own daughter's governess once her lover runs for office and decides to adopt the baby. Producer-director Frank Capra also had a hand in the original story, but this doesn't appear to be material the filmmaker would normally connect with. It's a somewhat hysterical potboiler, given a slight boost by Barbara Stanwyck's thoughtful lead performance. **1/2 from ****
- moonspinner55
- Jul 21, 2012
- Permalink
Frobidden Fruit
the dream of it all
Frank Capra is probably best known to contemporary cinephiles for "It Happened One Night" and "It's a Wonderful Life". One of his lesser known movies is 1932's "Forbidden". Barbara Stanwyck plays an office worker who goes on a cruise and meets a suave dude (Adolphe Menjou), and they strike up a relationship. However, things take an awkward turn.
Made as it was before the infamous Hays Code, this movie has one scene in particular that seems like it would've been risque even for the pre-code era. Apparently the movie couldn't get re-released under the code because the subject matter got considered "immoral". As always, this obsession with "morality" suppresses art.
Anyway, it's not a great movie, but worth seeing for the pre-code material and for Capra's unique style (in particular how he frames the scenes). Also starring is Ralph Bellamy, who later played one of the Duke brothers in John Landis's "Trading Places".
Made as it was before the infamous Hays Code, this movie has one scene in particular that seems like it would've been risque even for the pre-code era. Apparently the movie couldn't get re-released under the code because the subject matter got considered "immoral". As always, this obsession with "morality" suppresses art.
Anyway, it's not a great movie, but worth seeing for the pre-code material and for Capra's unique style (in particular how he frames the scenes). Also starring is Ralph Bellamy, who later played one of the Duke brothers in John Landis's "Trading Places".
- lee_eisenberg
- Apr 27, 2024
- Permalink
One of Capra's Best Films
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!
- Hollywood_Yoda
- Nov 2, 2018
- Permalink
early, pre code for stanwyck
One of stanwyck's early films, done before the film code was being enforced. When they could still talk about such things. And directed by frank capra, the master! Stanwyck was already getting above the title. When lulu spends her life savings on an ocean cruise, she meets bob, who finally confesses that he's married. So he brings lulu home as a nanny for their child. But that's not really working either, so she goes back to work at the paper. Bob's wife has some illness that's never explained. When al the reporter threatens to expose the long affair between lulu and the governor, things get out of hand! Can they iron things out? It's pretty good; time whooshes by as they age, but it's an interesting story. Just before the film code ramped up, and then it was white picket fences and cocktail parties for the next twenty years. There's a great line in here where al flirts with lulu by saying "the longer they NO, the harder they YES! So naughty. The run time currently being shown on tubi streaming is about 83 minutes, but the trivia tells us there was a longer, previous version. Capra won three oscars, all after this film. And was nominated for three more!
A highly accomplished and moving piece of film-making!
- JohnHowardReid
- Feb 11, 2018
- Permalink
Mediocre film buoyed by good performances
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.
- MissSimonetta
- Mar 6, 2022
- Permalink
time stands still!!
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.
Passion and politics
- jarrodmcdonald-1
- Oct 27, 2022
- Permalink