FORBIDDEN
US, 1932, 85 minutes, Black and white.
Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou, Ralph Bellamy.
Directed by Frank Capra.
Forbidden is a brief but event-packed melodrama of the early 30s. It was directed by Frank Capra at the beginning of his successful career - including Oscars for It Happened One Night, Mr Deeds Goes To Town, You Can't Take It With You and other films including Mr Smith Goes To Washington, Meet John Doe, The State Of The Union. Barbara Stanwyck had worked with Capra in The Miracle Woman and here gives an interesting, performance in which she has to age over several decades. She is matched interestingly with Adolphe Menjou as the District Attorney-become-Senator? and Governor and a young Ralph Bellamy as a crusading newspaper editor.
The material is familiar Americana, the politician, the journalist, the heroine who has an affair with the politician and remains loyal to him, though in the background, over many decades. (A telemovie comparison of the '80s is Lucie Arnaz and Richard Jordan in Washington Mistress.)
The film is the material of soap opera, was used in many of the adaptations of American best-sellers for the screen and for mini-series. It is surprising how much is packed into the 90 minutes of this film. It is also surprising to note the seemingly permissive moral stances of the screenplay - and it is also easy to see why the Hayes Code and the Motion Picture Production Code became tighter in the mid-30s. While the style is rather dated, this film is as entertaining in its way as many of the similar larger scale bigger budget versions of the same story.
1. An entertaining 1930s story? Melodramatic soap opera? Characters and issues?
2. The moral stances of the film, the sympathy towards Lulu and her relationship with Robert, the single mother, the illegitimate daughter, the mistress kept in the background? The changes of the production code for morality to be much more evident in films?
3. The work of Frank Capra, his work in the early 1930s, his handling of soap opera material, of characters? His subsequent career?
4. The title and its focus on Lulu and her life?
5. Barbara Stanwyck's portrait of Lulu: the small-town girl, never late, throwing in her job, getting the money, the cruise, alone in the dining room, the chance encounter with Bob in the cabin, the relationship, Havana and the collage of enjoyment, the return to New York and her new job, the affair? The truth about Robert and his wife? Her being hurt? In hospital, registering as Jane Doe, the birth of her child, bringing it up? Her taking the role of governess - and the clash with Robert's wife? Her relationship with Bob over the years? Al's romantic pursuit of her? Her writing letters of advice at the paper? The passing of time? Roberta growing up, Robert as D.A., Senate election, becoming Governor? Her presence at the rallies? Al and his expose? Her marrying him? The meal sequence and Al revealing the truth and the evidence? Her confrontation and shooting him? Her presence at Robert's death? Burning the will?
6. Robert and the trip, drunk, the numbers of the cabin and the private joke between him and Lulu, Havana, New York, admitting the truth, his finding Lulu and her daughter, wanting to adopt Roberta and bringing her home, his relationship with his wife? Her illness, his sense of duty? The D.A., Al and his paper attacking? The passing of the years, the fidelity to Lulu, the campaigns? His tiredness and wanting to tell the truth? The letter intercepted by Al? His will, death with Lulu present?
7. Al and his eagerness, becoming editor, pursuing Grover, pursuing Lulu, the eventual marriage, the expose, the confrontation and his being shot?
8. Robert's wife, her illness, patience, her love for her daughter?
9. A piece of Americana: social and political history, 1930s style?
