Forbidden (1949)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

From my favorite movies..

As Good As It Gets

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Former chemistry professor Douglass Montgomery creates and sells all kinds of potions on the Blackpool funfair, to make ends meet while his wife Patricia Burke buys tons of clothes and tries to revive her theater career. At the funfair he meets ice-cream seller Hazel Court and they hit it off. But Burke won't give Montgomery a divorce however, at least not until she no longer has any use for him. When he sees her faint due to taking too many slimming pills, he sees an opportunity to get rid of Burke a different way and replaces her pills with more lethal ones. The plan works, and he buries her under the floor of his warehouse. Only to find afterwards Burke didn't take the replaced pills after all!Told in flashback for the majority of the movie, this is a nice British noir-ish thriller with more than a few Hitchcockian touches. Hammer horror scream queen Court ('Dear Murderer') and Burke ('The Lisbon Story') are great here in their respective roles, Court charming and sweet, Burke selfish and cold. Montgomery ('The Cat And The Canary') has way less presence and comes across as a poor man's Michael Redgrave, making the viewer care less about his (ironic) predicament. Thankfully the women's performances help level out Montgomery's average one.This was to be director George King's ('The Shop At Sly Corner') last movie and he does a good job, the movie has a nice pace and he knows how to create tension. Together with DoP Hone Glendinning ('The Scarlet Web') whom he worked with several times before they give this movie a well above-average look with plenty of shadows. They also make great use of on-location shots on the Blackpool funfair as well as on its iconic tower. All in all, a good movie that is let down a bit by Montgonery's blase performance and lack of charisma. This movie was released in the States as 'Scarlet Heaven' btw and has some additional scenes as well as some voice-over narration. Both versions are available on a DVD released by Network in the UK.

I always thought Douglas Montgomery was one of the better young actors to come to prominence in the early thirties. With his blonde good looks and his chortling laugh he seemed sincere and natural and reading different comments that he made during his career he seemed passionate about acting and really strove to give good performances. He stayed in England after the war and gave two marvellous performances - first as the despondent airman in the superior British War film "The Way to the Stars", then, a couple of years later in his last film "Forbidden", as a research chemist forced into demeaning work by his unscrupulous wife. Critics felt it was the best work of his career but until lately it has been unavailable for over 50 years except for a television showing in 1978.Director George King gave the film a noir look, very in keeping with the American tradition, especially Hitchcock where he seems to have copied the maestro's style. Blackpool's Golden Mile is the setting with Jim Harding (Montgomery) forced to become a patent medicine salesman at the local funfair because of his wife, Diana's, grasping ways. He is desperate to put his research talents to good use but instead finds himself selling potions for baldness and stomach disorders to give his wife the money she needs to further her theatrical career. Called "The Professor" by his friend and spruiker (Ronald Shiner in a typical mile a minute role), things start to come unstuck when his former mentor visits him and is appalled by his comedown. They agree to meet for a meal but even though Jim pleads off on the excuse that his wife is sick, when Dr. Franklin meets Diana (Patricia Burke) the next morning he recognises her as one of the night club patrons of the evening before.Before Hazel Court became entrenched in horror pics and Roger Corman, she was, in the 1940s, part of Rank's rising generation of young hopefuls and cut her teeth in "Champagne Charlie", "Carnival" etc and was the first choice of lead for "The Red Shoes" when it was originally conceived as a straight drama. She looked absolutely gorgeous and vibrant as Jane, the feisty ice cream stall worker and the one who puts the spring back in Jim's step. They embark on an affair - a scene you would never see in an American film at the time, the two sharing a morning cup of tea, sitting on an unmade bed that has obviously been occupied by two. Very risqué - but very natural as British cinema was discovering realism!!Meanwhile Diana is desperate to return to the stage but her "mentor" is stringing her along - she is just too talentless to play the leads she craves. She is all set to run away with him but he is one jump ahead and leaves her stranded at the station. Her return home precipitates a series of events that ends with Jim fighting it out with one of the razor gang boys on top of Blackpool Tower.It was very Hitchcockian in it's filming and setting - nothing like a funfair to bring out sordidness and murder ie "Strangers on a Train" and "Quicksand", but I did find it slightly irritating when the leading man acts in a completely irrational way, obviously just to prolong the story which would have been better with a tighter editing job anyway. Still great to see a film long thought of as lost.

Would-be scientist Douglass Montgomery (Jim) teams up with salesman Ronald Shiner (Dan) to rid tourists in Blackpool of their money by selling medicine that re-grows your hair amongst other things. On a nearby stall, Hazel Court (Jane) has the hots for Montgomery, and they soon embark on an affair. Naughty Douglass – he's married to Patricia Burke (Diana). However, she is more interested in pursuing her acting career and is prepared to sleep her way onto the casting couch, her current favourite being Garry Marsh (Jerry). Montgomery wants a divorce but Burke won't give him one and so he hatches a plan to bump her off. He interferes with her own daily medicine and finds her dead. He then buries her in his studio and now he's really in trouble. The story is told in flashback before we end the film with a chase and fight on Blackpool Tower.I like this film. Uk films are pretty good from this time, providing they are not comedies. The best in the cast is Patricia Burke. She excels as a bitch and it's a shame that she is killed off so early. There are several funny moments as demonstrated by Burke's self-assured nastiness. The scene where she visits Court is a classic as is the way she lets Montgomery know that she's going off to stay with a relative yet blatantly has her current beau escort her into a cab. And then presents Montgomery with the bill for her new change of clothes as she departs. A very wicked woman! And there are tense moments including the fight at the finale between Montgomery and love-rival Kenneth Griffith (Johnny). The scene is finished in an unexpected but refreshing way that demonstrates how to conduct oneself in a potential death situation. Jolly good manners all round.It's nice to see the Blackpool Tower, which the French obviously copied to make their own version – the Trifle Tower or something like that. Not a patch on Blackpool. I could imagine Michael Redgrave and Googie Withers playing the husband and wife team – they looked a bit similar to Montgomery and Burke – but Montgomery and especially Burke do justice to their roles. I'm not sure why Montgomery didn't just tell Hazel Court that he was married and I'm not sure where the title comes from, but it's an enjoyable film.

I found Douglass Montgomery a bore. The setup is good, though. He's a chemist who's forced to manufacture and sell patent medicines from a fairground booth in Blackpool to keep his sluttish wife. She's the best thing in the movie, played well by Patricia Burke in a succession of alarming costumes. When she dresses up for best she puts a couple of cabbage roses on her head, plus a veil, drapes a dead fox round her neck and sticks a large bow on her bottom. Her love rival, played by Hazel Court, is far more stylish. Hazel makes only the faintest attempt to sound anything other than stage school ("I'll stick with me own kind.") She's meant to be a soft drink and candy floss seller with a lot of shady mates. She lives in a terrace house, but Montgomery and Burke live in a rather wonderful art deco block. What's interesting, though, is that it's quite clear that Burke is sleeping with an older admirer in order to get a part in a play. And when Montgomery gets off with Court they make love in the sand dunes and he then practically moves into her place. And we think we invented sex! Or as Philip Larkin wrote, "sexual intercourse began in 1963" - a long way after this movie.