Forbidden (1932)

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Barbara Stanwyck plays a lonely librarian who falls in love with Adolph Menjou on a cruise, but her joy is short-lived in this tragic love story directed by Frank Capra. Stanwyck finds out her beau is already married (to an invalid, no less) and ends their relationship, keeping her pregnancy a secret to save his political career. But when a newspaper reporter (Ralph Bellamy) falls for Babs many years later, she must choose between him and her old flame when the secret risks exposure to the public, hurting not just Menjou but their daughter, too.

Forbidden benefits tremendously from terrific chemistry between Stanwyck and Menjou. Two early “getting to know you” scenes with them are the finest in the picture for effortless but sincere rom-com writing and earnest performing. Bellamy is left playing the antagonist in a less interesting plotline, but succeeds in putting pressure on Stanwyck and Menjou’s hidden desires for one another. It’s melodrama, for sure, but these actors sell it. The unconventional ending, courtesy of relaxed pre-Code mores, is icing on the cake.