FORBIDDEN
US, 1953, 84 minutes, black and white.
Tony Curtis, Joanne Dru, Lyle Bettger.
Directed by Rudolph Mate.
Forbidden was made when Tony Curtis was emerging in popularity and starring in a number of films, musicals, fantasy, racing car dramas… This one is set in Macau, rather exotic although everything was done in Universal Studios. It has echoes of Casablanca and the film noir of the 1940s, a hero with a seedy background, femme fatale, an unscrupulous gangster. Joanne Dru is the leading lady and Lyle Bettger, always suavely sinister, is the gangster.
The film was directed by Rudolph Mate, the cinematographer, who directed Tony Curtis in The Prince Who was a Thief, The Rawhide Years, The Black Shield of Falworth.
One of the main features is the song which has remained an evergreen, You Belong to Me. (its lyrics were the basis for a Mary Higgins Clark thriller, You Belong to Me.)
1. A 1950s version of the film noir? Popular ingredients from other films?
2. The Macao setting, exotic touches but all made in the studio, the streets, hotels, clubs? Musical score?
3. The popular song, You Belong to Me, during the credits, sung during the film, as background theme?
4. The setup, Eddie and his voice-over, in Macao, sent by the gangsters to find Christine, her marriage, the breakup, the documents, her ability to expose the gangster? The men following Eddie to the hotel?
5. The club, saving Justin, the Chinese attack? Justin and his gratitude? Engaged to Christine? His welcoming Eddie, at the club, in the city?
6. Eddie with Christine, the past, the breakup, her marriage, yet still in love? The meetings, talk, reviving the romance? Deceiving Justin?
7. Justin, and his gangster activities, his empire, illegal imports? His manner, treatment of Christine, of Eddie? His henchmen, Sam? Confrontation by the Chinese, the murders, considered suicide?
8. Eddie, his friendship with the piano player, the piano player and his warnings, arranging for an escape?
9. Justin, the story of his leaving, his sudden return, confronting Eddie?
10. The planning of the escape, the man tailing Eddie confronting him, Eddie putting him off, Christine overhearing? Her reaction, the marriage to Justin, the ceremony, Eddie arriving, her talking with him? Justin and his anger, losing face?
11. Christine driving, the escape, going to the boat, stowing away, Justin and Sam, the pursuit, on the boat, the shooting, the bale falling on Sam, Eddie’s fight with Justin?
12. Sam crushed, shooting, starting explosion, the destruction of the boat? Eddie and Christine watching?
13. The official information, finding Christine’s documents, the condemnatory documents for the gangster in Philadelphia? The document that she was presumed dead? And a happy romantic ending?
