Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

mark.waltz The scandals of the old south lead to many classic novels, plays and movies, and after the triumph of "Gone With the Wind", the movies made the lives of plantation owners (both rich and broke), wealthy city residents and even those of a less than noble past a regular part of the schedule. In many ways, these characters lived much like those of mixed backgrounds in such British made classics that starred the likes of Merle Oberon, Margaret Lockwood, David Niven and James Mason. Give the audience a beautiful femme fatal, a handsome hero, and some scheming villains, and you've got the stuff that provides enough drama for years of soap opera material."My Forbidden Past" reminds me in many ways of the camp Republic classic "Lady For a Night" which focused on a wealthy saloon owner in Mephis who married her way into high society and became the target of some scheming in-laws. No Memphis Belle she, the beautiful Ava Gardner is the niece of a struggling New Orleans family who is bequested a fortune from her maternal grandmother, once a notorious beauty with a scandalous past. Her matriarchal aunt (Lucille Watson) is determined to keep the dead grandmother's name out of the family, and Watson's less than noble son (Melvyn Douglas) is determined to use the new fortune to restore the one he's lost in bad business dealings. He goes as far as keeping Gardner's doctor lover (Robert Mitchum) from receiving a goodbye letter she wrote to him and he leaves New Orleans, only to return years later with a beautiful wife (Janis Carter) who is quickly seduced by Douglas. The scandal leads to murder with Mitchum accused of the crime and a shocking revelation in court which threatens to destroy many lives.Unfolding in just over 70 minutes, "My Forbidden Past" is certainly not a classic, but is definitely enjoyable. It's lavish trash, made on a medium budget, and never gives the audience time to become bored. There's a great costume ball where Mitchum and Carter are presented to New Orleans society, where Douglas's nefarious means to an end are revealed, and where Gardner's determination to win back her former lover becomes her one and only goal. Then, there's her visit to her grandmother's grave, the shock of a young boy as he realizes why she is there, and Watson's reaction to the scandal which would bring her great personal humiliation. Watson's grand dame character is both imperious and understanding, but the understanding part of her could never survive the scandal that her old world moralities has desperately tried to keep hidden. The plot twist which leads Mitchum to being accused of criminal intent is presented pretty violently, and the final courtroom scene is almost identical in revelations to the ending of "Lady For a Night".While this will get a mixed reaction from classic film fans, you can't deny the chemistry between Gardner and Mitchum, the irony of 30's hero Douglas being so despicable here, and the lavishness of the sets, costumes and early twentieth century society where the old south strived to remain intact even though the world and history had greatly altered the way that life back in the land of cotton had moved forward since the end of the civil war some 35 years before.

dbdumonteil The film is much too short .A melodrama demands lavish details ,mainly when it deals with a "forbidden" past.Here Gardner's grandma's racy past is only skimmed over.Her relationship with Mitchum -not convincing as a professor-makes me think of a poor man' s "Jezebel" .And Mitchum's character's attitude does not make much sense when he come s back with a wife.Besides the ending I-hope-she-will -mend-her-ways is unworthy of a great melodrama :never Sirk,Stahl , Minnelli or Wyler would have ended one of their works that way.Ava Gardner is for me the most beautiful actress that has ever been but there are so many works to remember her,better than this one!

claudja777 I saw this movie more than any other movie ever..No I'm not sick ,is just that this is a classic of private television and it's programmed at least once a month..so!The First time I saw it, I was ten,I already understood that was something absurd in the plot,like they had to invent something to take apart hot Ava and lusty Mitchum until the end and so there's all that absurd affair between his ugly cousin and the Rita Hayworth of the poor man wife.The lines of Mitchum are one more cynic than the other (not for nothing he was Mitchum!),Ava is beautiful ,the clothes of the two girls too and..that's all!This movie makes really no sense .I'll give a 5,just because of How am I affectioned to it,but it's a clear 3

David (Handlinghandel) Ava Gardner is possibly the only major Hollywood star ever to appear in such a vast proprtion =of terrible movies. She's always beautiful and she was in maybe three good ones. But what a bunch of turkeys! It's sad, because she was one of teh great beauties of Hollywood history, a decent actres, and a likable presence always.Some might say, "What about 'Show Boat'?" Well, the answer is: Take a look at the gorgeous original, with Helen Morhgan in the role Ava tries hard to do well by, and the great, great Irene Dunne as its star.