Forbidden *** (1949, Douglass Montgomery, Hazel Court, Patricia Burke) – Classic Movie Review 12,233

Douglass Montgomery stars with Hazel Court and Patricia Burke in the 1949 British black and white melodrama thriller film Forbidden [Scarlet Heaven]. Set in Blackpool, though filmed almost entirely in the studio, it is produced and directed by George King in his last production as an independent producer and as director.

Montgomery plays married Blackpool chemist Jim Harding, who falls for another young woman, kindly ice-cream lady Jane Thompson (Hazel Court), and plans to bump off (discreetly with poison, of course, as this is a Forties British film) his vulgar, shrewish, spendthrift wife Diana (Patricia Burke), who refuses to divorce him.

Jim peddles medicines from a fairground stall with old army buddy Dan Collins (Ronald Shiner). He does not tell Jane, who sells candyfloss and ice cream at an adjacent stall, that he is married, so they fall in love and start an affair. Diana starts up with older Jerry Burns (Garry Marsh) who she thinks will help her showbiz ambitions.

America’s Montgomery is entertaining in this brisk, lively, enjoyable, above-par British support crime thriller, with a neat sting in the tale. The final confrontation takes place at Blackpool Tower.

Most shots of Blackpool are stock footage or photographic backdrops as almost all filming was done in the studio at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London. However, grateful acknowledgement is made to the Blackpool and Tower Authorities, whose co-operation enabled certain scenes to be enacted in their authentic locale.

Montgomery’s American film career was interrupted by World War Two service with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He then moved to Britain and made The Way to the Stars (1945), Woman to Woman (1947), and this, his last film, Forbidden.

The cast are Douglass Montgomery as Jim Harding, Hazel Court as Jane Thompson, Patricia Burke as Diana Harding, Garry Marsh as Jerry Burns, Ronald Shiner as Dan Collins, Kenneth Griffith as Johnny, Eliot Makeham as Pop Thompson, Frederick Leister as Dr. Franklin, Richard Bird as Jennings, Michael Medwin as Cabby, Andrew Cruickshank as Inspector Baxter, Peggy Ann Clifford as Millie, Peter Jones as Pete, Erik Chitty as Schofield, Sam Kydd as Joe, Dora Sevening, William Douglas, and Dennis Hawkins.

It is made by George King Productions and released in the UK on 28 February 1949 by British Lion Film Corporation and on DVD by Odeon Entertainment (2012) (UK).

Runtime: 87 minutes.

Hazel Court appeared by permission of The J Arthur Rank Organisation.

Forbidden is directed by George King, runs 87 minutes, is made by Pennant and George King Productions, is released by British Lion Film Corporation, is written by Katherine Strueby, based on a story by Val Valentine, is shot in black and white by Hone Glendinning, is produced by George King, and is scored by George Melachrino.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,233

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