If 66 was 99: If the sun refused to shine, I don’t mind, If the mountains fell in the sea, Let it be...Lulu’s life is turned upside down and crashes but she remains faithful to her one and only love. Frank Capra may be known to put his characters through Hell and high water to reach their happy ending but here in FORBIDDEN, the denouement is tragic and unexpected but painfully heartfelt.
Lulu (Barbara Stanwyck) merely exists, never truly living in her bucolic environment, so she cashes in her life savings and does the most random and exciting thing she can imagine: she goes on a vacation alone to Havana! Now we need to suspend our disbelief at this early point as Lulu is supposed to be a plain and uninspired small-town boring librarian but even without makeup and adorned with glasses she is beautiful! Her cruise to Havana becomes one of discovery as she meets another lonely man, who mistakes room 66 for 99, and they begin to fall in love. No questions asked, partly because she fears the answers, they soon return home and continue the romance. Bob Grover (Adolphe Menjou) eventually admits he is married and his wife an invalid. Lulu desires to keep the affair in secret but Bob, to his credit, sees that she gains little from this illicit relationship and breaks it off. Lulu goes full Stanwyck on him and throws him out.
Now, unknown to Bob, Lulu is pregnant with their child. Through many melodramatic plot twists and turns, Bob convinces his wife (who only has a limp, I was expecting her to be paralyzed and bedridden!) that he adopted the child while she was away at a European Health Resort and Lulu is the Governess. The story begins to run deeper and darker as we learn Bob Grover is the elected District Attorney with aspirations to be Governor, and Lulu’s new boss (who also lusts after her) is a Newspaper Editor with a vendetta against him. If this secret is revealed his public life and reputation will be ruined.
Adolphe Menjou’s performance is critical in establishing Bob as a decent and caring person, one who has a conscience and regrets the circumstances that Lulu has to suffer for him. He is gentle and charming, funny and tender and we feel as Lulu does that it isn’t an “act” (I mean, it is acting but in the story’s context it feels genuine). Bob Grover is a good man who attains the height of his ambition and Lulu may physically suffer in her silence but draws strength and hope from his accomplishments. Damn, she makes the sacrifice of her own daughter to Bob and his wife and even marries her scumbag boss to stop him from revealing the truth of the “adoption”. In a violent and suspenseful climax, Lulu’s husband throws her against the wall! With blood dripping through her clenched teeth, she fires three shots through a door wounding him, then purges years of anger by emptying the entire clip into his prostrate body. Fucking excellent!!
The coda is heart-wrenching as Lulu is pardoned by the Governor (Bob, of course) and he calls to her from his deathbed. She is secreted into the room and they reminisce over their night in Havana so many years ago as he drifts off towards peaceful oblivion. She takes his scribbled note, a Last Will and Testament addendum that gives her half his fortune, and discards in a trash bin as she disappears down a busy city street. His secret will forever remain undetected and his legacy intact. And Lulu’s lonely existence perdures yet her spirit is proud.
Final Grade: (B+)
