Forbidden (1932)
Directed by Frank Capra

Film Review

Frank Capra's third collaboration with rising star Barbara Stanwyck is generally considered his weakest and is often dismissed as a poor quality woman's picture.  The film does have its faults - the most apparent being its trite and horribly contrived plot - but it also has many good points.    First and foremost there are some fine performances.  Stanwyck, whilst not at her best, gives a sympathetic portrayal of a woman who is driven to sacrifice herself to save the man she loves.  Adolphe Menjou conveys the guilt and hopelessness of a man who, through societal constraints and personal ambition, ruins not only his own life but that of the person most dearest to him.  And Ralph Bellamy is convincing as an odious self-serving newspaper hack, who is keen to marry but who has no idea what love really is.

Whilst writing the screenplay for this film (a loose adaptation of Fannie Hurst's novel Back Street), Capra was almost certainly influenced by his own experiences.  The love triangle depicted in the film had its real-life equivalent involving Capra, Stanwyck and the latter's unsympathetic husband Frank Fay, a vaudeville comic who had become violently resentful of his wife's success.  Fay caused ructions when he visited the set, increasing tensions between Capra and his leading lady.  Capra even proposed to Stanwyck, but the actress turned him down and stuck with her increasingly sadomasochistic marriage until 1935.

Forbidden is far from being Frank Capra's best film, but despite its flaws it does have an immense emotional power, which comes partly from the performances, but also from Joseph Walker's moody chiaroscuro cinematography.  Yes, the story is far-fetched and egregiously over-sentimental in places, but there are some moments of genuine heart-wrenching poignancy.  Who can fail to be moved by the sequence in which Lulu is driven to give up her child, condemning herself to a life of barren solitude?  It's pure soap, perhaps not as effective at jerking the tears as some of the later Hollywood classic weepies, but still quite moving.  However, the main reason for watching this and other early Capra films is to see the director developing his technique, in preparation for the timeless masterpieces that would follow.

Film Synopsis

Tired of her life as a dowdy spinster librarian in a dull provincial town, Lulu Smith withdraws all her savings from her bank and books a luxury cruise to Havana.  She hopes to catch a man who will whisk her off her feet and make her his wife.  Sure enough, she does meet a man, a lawyer named Bob Grover, with whom she falls passionately in love, even if he is several years her senior.  The holiday over, Lulu returns to her humdrum life and is delighted when Bob shows up one day and says that she is the love of his life.  But then Bob makes a terrible revelation.  He is already married and is no position to divorce his wife.  Devastated by this news, Lulu insists that Bob stays away from her.  She even changes her address and her job so that he cannot find her.  Some months later, Lulu learns that she is pregnant with Bob's child.  When, five years later, Bob discovers that he has a daughter, Lulu has no choice but to hand the infant over to him.  Bob tells his wife that he found the child through an adoption agency.  The years pass, and Bob's career progresses in leaps and bounds and he looks set to become the state governor.  Meanwhile, Lulu is pursued by newspaper editor Al Holland, who is determined to marry her.  When she learns that Al is looking for dirt to ruin Bob's reputation, Lulu finally agrees to marry him, hoping that she can save her former lover.  She hasn't banked on Al's ruthlessness...