My Forbidden Past - Robert Mitchum

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Carriage Entrance" )

directed by Robert Stevenson
USA 1951

Romantic melodrama hung with Spanish moss, My Forbidden Past is so much gaudy claptrap. Taking several actors who made their names in the hot crucible of film noir and plunking them into a tired, costumed period-piece showed perverse ingenuity. The plot involves duplicitous machinations within a love...trapezoid?...in New Orleans at some vague juncture between the Surrender at Appomatox and the Guns of August, 1914.

Both Robert Mitchum and Ava Gardner, as the "good" lovers, flail around like fish out of water; the best performances come from the skunks: Melvyn Douglas, Lucile Watson and, especially, Janis Carter, as Gardner's rival (and in the same league of tough cookies; she has been called, from her relative few appearances, the "poor man's Barbara Stanwyck").

Excerpt of review from Bill McVicar for imdb.com located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: 14 April 1951 (USA)

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DVD Review: Warner Home Video (Warner Archive Collection) - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Warner Home Video Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:10:12
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 7.95 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	Dolby Digital Mono (English)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Theatrical trailer (2:13) DVD Release Date: November 27th, 2013 Keep Case Chapters 7

Comments

My Forbidden Past is a nice period drama starring Robert Mitchum, Ava Gardner and Melvyn Douglas, directed by Robert Stevenson for RKO between the noirs The Woman on Pier 13, Walk Softly, Stranger and The Las Vegas Story, but despite all that noir credibility and some film noir plot elements, the film can be hardly considered a film noir. Ava Gardner plays a young lady in New Orleans, living with her aunt and cousin (Melvyn Douglas), but her forbidden past, or actually past of her late grandmother, prevents her from getting married to the love of her life, a nice young doctor played by Richard Mitchum. Mitchum's character is too nice, Ava Gardner's character is misunderstood for the "crimes" of her grandmother and the only meaty roles by Melvyn Douglas and Janis Carter as a rival for Mitchum's affections save the picture from being a total bore.

The made-on-demand disc from Warner Archive utilizes an older transfer that has many instances of marks and specs, including "cigarette burns" at the reel changes. Overall, the contrast is good and there is no instance of chroma. The film still looks presentable and there are no issues with mono audio. There is a trailer included on the disc as an extra.

- Gregory Meshman

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