The Forbidden Street (1949)

Sorry, this movie sucks

A Major Disappointment

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Maureen O'Hara, the protagonist, was unique. She wasn't a staggering beauty like Gene Tierney, and not a bravura actress, but she was still magnetic on screen. Maybe to fully appreciate Maureen Fitzsimmons, you have to assess her as a gestalt, an entire package. She was innocently delicious in black and white, and in technicolor throw-aways her hair was the lustrous color of coquelicots. She narrates part of this movie and her voice has an earnest, lyrical that lilt sounds like something you might find at the end of the rainbow. She never showed much interest in being a great movie star or an exceptionally skilled "actress". With those attributes alone she deserves attention. But more than that, she was earthy and sassy, and called all kinds of posturing phony. Who else, when criticized by the authoritarian John Ford while filming "The Quiet Man," would shout back at him, "What does a bald-headed old SOB like you know about having your hair blown in your face?" That's sass.It's the late 1800s. O'Hara is the well-bred daughter of two stuffy parents and lives in a large house whose rear window opens on a squalid street Brittania Mews, which would be quite a classy name in, say, Bakersfield, California. You can tell THIS street is infra dig because you hear the music of a hurdy gurdy and a tinkling piano. O'Hara is forbidden to visit the street because it's filthy and the people are poor and nasty. Still, she's drawn to it. And you can see why. It may be all brick and wrought iron stairways and louche taverns and Dollar Stores but it's colorful and the residents are vibrant with hatred. O'Hara is courted by her art teacher, Dana Andrews, dubbed and so bearded and bushy haired that he's barely recognizable. But her parents reject the notion of marriage because he's frankly too poor, artist or not. She manages to marry him anyway and lives happily on a small stash of her own with him in Brittania Mews. And her family remains estranged.That is, until he begins to turn down commissions in order to paint what he likes and play with his beloved marionettes. He gets regularly boozed up too, and it develops that he's had previous liaisons. One night, drunk as usual, he admits to having had multiple affairs -- but not with all the women he's been accused of having had as lovers. "Some of them were too repulsive." And then -- the worst words a wife can hear. He doesn't love her. He never did. He courted her because he didn't want to lose the fees from a client. His protestations of love had all been a rich buffet of bullshite. So saying, he falls down the stairs and breaks his neck.Then the story gets a little weird. An ugly old lady called "the Sow" accuses O'Hara of murder and blackmails her. I kind of like the Sow. She's a fat old witch straight out of Dickens. And then, miraculously, so to speak, a drunk is thrown out of the Red Lion Tavern (not the one downstairs in Greenwich Village) and he looks just like a shaven Dana Andrews, which in fact he is. This incarnation of Andrews is poor but honest. O'Hara, mystified, allows him to sleep in the coach room. Soon he reveals that he is a barrister and puts an end to the Sow's blackmail. He also shows an eerie fascination with Andrew 1.0's collection of puppets. He buffs and restores them, takes lessons in puppeteering, and soon has them dancing around. He and O'Hara find an angel and open a puppet theater in Brittania Mews, staging fairy tales and plays by Moliere, and bringing new life to the crummy alley. The bawdy house piano is now practicing Chopin. It's a roaring success. Of course, by this time the duo are in love, but Andrews 2.0 must still sleep in the coach room because he's married to a wife long gone to America.The experienced viewer knows that with ten minutes to go, this happiness can't last. And it doesn't. The puppet theater has gained international notice and the original wife of Andrews 2.0 returns from America to cash in on the deal, revealing that she divorced Andrews while she was in Milwaukee. Andrews explains that everything belongs to O'Hara and that he owns nothing. Exit Mrs. Dana Andrews 2.0. It isn't long before O'Hara's family reconciles with the pair. Andrews and O'Hara are promptly married and, boys and girls, they lived happily ever after.I rather enjoyed it as light entertainment. It's a riches to rags to riches story and a familiar format indeed. But the script has some cute dialog, the acting isn't intolerable, O'Hara shines, and Brittania Mews is enthralling.

When Dana Andrews appeared on the screen, I was shocked. Shocked because out of his mouth came the strangest British voice--strange because it obviously was dubbed! The voice and the face just don't go together at all! And, combined with the bohemian hair and goatee, he's definitely an actor out of his element!! Maureen O'Hara plays the title character. She is a lower upper-class girl whose home overlooks the Mews--a stretch of slum apartments surrounding the stables. She falls in love (or, it's more like a girlish infatuation) with an artist (Andrews) and runs off with him. Her parents are angered, as he is from the lower class--so they cut her off. O'Hara assumes they'll live off love and be content, but that doesn't last long. Andrews drinks and has little ambition--and soon the marriage is all but over. When they argue one day, he falls off the stairs to his death--and a neighbor (a decrepit old crow) sees it and blackmails her. This is an interesting twist, but also made no sense, as the police almost certainly would not have believed the blackmailer and O'Hara was a lady. But, despite this and no evidence it was anything other than an accident (which it was), she pays the old bat and is forced to stay in the Mews--and she's being bled dry in the process.Later in the film, a really, really goofy thing occurs--a 10 on a goofiness scale. Dana Andrews appears once again--but he's playing a different character! This one looks like the traditional Andrews and it is really his voice--along with a somewhat British accent...somewhat. This Andrews is an out of luck actor who drinks. He asks her what she bothers to stay in this dump--a wonderful and very insightful question! He soon helps her rid herself of the blackmailer--using something she lacks--common sense! Soon, the pair begin cohabiting--him assuming the role of her new husband (though the film is cagey about whether or not they sleep together--it seems they probably and inexplicably did not).One of the first things Andrews #2 does is discovers the dead husband's project--a set of beautiful puppets (which, by the way, O'Hara hated and discouraged Andrews #1 from making). He suddenly shows a lot of ambition and sobriety--and learns to be an expert puppeteer. As a result of his new fame, the two are able to have a nice life due to his great success. And, in the process, the Mews is transformed into a far less crappy neighborhood. Some time later, when O'Hara sees her brother, she pretends (why?!?!) that Andrews #2 is Andrews #1...whatever. Will the ruse be discovered? Will anyone care? This film features the horrible cliché of identical strangers as well as no reasonable reason for O'Hara remaining in the Mews and paying blackmail. When a story relies on a character behaving this stupidly, it's a bad film unless it is supposed to be a comedy--and this was no comedy (aside from Andrews' dubbed voice...THAT was funny!). Despite good acting and some nice Twentieth-Century Fox polish, the film really was a silly and convoluted mess because the script was often dumb.

Not-bad studio-set drama, also known as "The Forbidden Street", involves miscast Maureen O'Hara (her rolling Irish burr more pronounced than ever) as a wealthy young British woman in Victorian England who marries a penniless art-instructor and moves with him into the slums of London; after an accidental death, O'Hara is blackmailed by the local busybody, but finds redemption in congenial--though already married--Dana Andrews. Neither O'Hara nor Andrews gives a particularly strong performance, but the supporting players are good and the screenplay (by talented Ring Lardner Jr., from a book by Margery Sharp) nicely avoids soap opera and predictability by continually changing its tone and direction. O'Hara's character goes through just as many changes, turning from wide-eyed girl to fed-up housewife to salty broad to society bride! The set designs are impeccable, and the film is well-mounted and paced with a jovial step. *** from ****

Dana Andrews first character in the movie was as 'Henry Lambert' not 'Herbert Lambert' and he didn't fall out a window - he fell down the stairs. I watched this movie today on Fox and I liked it - I didn't think that I would at first. This movie was also titled: "Affairs of Adelaide" and "The Forbidden Street". The story was a from a book by Margery Sharp entitled: "Britannia Mews". She also wrote the books from which the animated features "The Rescuers" (1977) and "The Rescuers Down Under" (1990) were drawn. I would buy this movie (The Forbidden Street/Britannia Mews/Affairs of Adelaide) if it were to come out on DVD. This is the first time I have commented on a movie in such a way.