Forbidden

Directed by Frank Capra, Forbidden follows Barbara Stanwyck’s Lulu Smith as she falls for a married man (Adolphe Menjou’s Bob Grover) during a romantic cruise to Havana. It’s reasonable-enough subject matter that is, for the most part, employed to dull and uninvolving effect by Capra, as the filmmaker, armed with Jo Swerling’s screenplay, delivers an often egregiously deliberate endeavor that isn’t, in its early stages, as salacious as its premise might’ve indicated (ie the movie could really use a jolt of sleaze to perk things up). And while the picture admittedly does pick up in a second half packed with decent twists, Forbidden, despite a predictably top-tier Stanwyck turn, builds towards a woefully tedious third act that’s hardly able to pack the emotional punch for which Capra is obviously striving – with the end result a predominantly lackluster melodrama that fares considerably worse than 1932’s similarly-themed Back Street.

** out of ****