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      Forbidden

      Released Jan 15, 1932 1h 23m Drama List
      Reviews 63% Audience Score 100+ Ratings On a cruise ship headed to Havana, librarian Lulu Smith (Barbara Stanwyck) meets dashing attorney Bob Grover (Adolphe Menjou), and they quickly become inseparable. When they return home, their relationship is complicated by an inconvenient fact: Bob is married and unwilling to leave his bedridden wife. Their relationship dissolves, and Lulu decides not to tell him that she's pregnant with his child. But, when Bob becomes district attorney, a nosy reporter may uncover the explosive news anyway. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

      View All (4) Critics Reviews
      David Jenkins Time Out The vitriol and hurt coursing through this prickly, scandalous pre-code melodrama from 1932 may wrong-foot those who had director Frank Capra pegged as head cheerleader for good ol' American democracy and cheery, affirmative humanist values. Rated: 4/5 Oct 27, 2010 Full Review Sarah Manvel Cinemattraction Wrestling with how a working mother can find fulfillment without being forced to choose between her career and her children is still a relevant topic today - therefore so is Forbidden. Aug 7, 2018 Full Review Stephen Hughes Radio Times This is sadly disappointing stuff from such masters of their craft. Rated: 2/5 Oct 28, 2010 Full Review Philip Kemp Total Film Well before the end the whole thing collapses into rip-roaring melodrama. Rated: 2/5 Oct 27, 2010 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

      View All (13) audience reviews
      Steve D Stanwyck is all this melodrama has going for it, but as always it is enough. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 05/04/23 Full Review Audience Member Early Frank Capra film, where he's actually billed as Frank R. Capra, about a spinster librarian, Barbara Stanwyck, falling for an unobtainable married man,Adolphe Menjou, who's married to a crippled wife. It's a pretty hamfisted melodrama and to me seems like more evidence of those who claim that Capra was not a great director and was only ever as good as his scripts. Ralph Bellamy also appears in the film. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Overblown meller that Missy Stanwyck makes worth watching, as she always did. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member barabara stanwyk does a fantastic job with the material she's given, but "forbidden" doesn't seem to aim any higher than mediocrity. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member early soaper and one of many workings of capra and stanwyck who capra said 'when she turned it on everything else stopped"! Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member A woman, who has an affair with a married man, decides to stay "the other woman". She sacrificesher desire to have a family, to live with the man she loves. She even gives up her child and lets him and his wife adopt it as their child. Is that unconditional devotion she shows admirable? Or just pitiful? Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

      Movie Info

      Synopsis On a cruise ship headed to Havana, librarian Lulu Smith (Barbara Stanwyck) meets dashing attorney Bob Grover (Adolphe Menjou), and they quickly become inseparable. When they return home, their relationship is complicated by an inconvenient fact: Bob is married and unwilling to leave his bedridden wife. Their relationship dissolves, and Lulu decides not to tell him that she's pregnant with his child. But, when Bob becomes district attorney, a nosy reporter may uncover the explosive news anyway.
      Director
      Frank Capra
      Screenwriter
      Jo Swerling
      Distributor
      Columbia Pictures
      Production Co
      Columbia Pictures
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Jan 15, 1932, Original
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Mar 8, 2019
      Runtime
      1h 23m