Forbidden Hours

Forbidden Hours (1928)

A Drama of Human Hearts under Ermine Robes.

Set in the fictitious European kingdom of Balanca, Prince Michael IV is being coerced, by his advisers, to marry a young woman of royal blood. However, he has fallen for a peasant.

Date of release
1928-06-16
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
1h 0m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Harry Beaumont

Casting

Interesting facts

Forbidden Hours is a 1928 American silent romantic drama film directed by Harry Beaumont as a vehicle for Mexican-born star Ramon Novarro. It was the second of four films to pair Novarro with leading lady Renée Adorée.

Production

The film was shot in Los Angeles with a budget of $293,000. Working titles included The Sun King, His Night and The Loves of Louis. The script originally contained reworked plot elements from Man in the Iron Mask but these elements were eventually discarded and the film took on a more Prussian design scheme reminiscent of the earlier Novarro success, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg.

News sources reported that Jacqueline Gadsden, Marcelle Corday and a Shirley O'Hara were also in the cast. Sven Hugo Borg may have also appeared in the film. In an expansion of the common silent-filmmaking convention of having live musicians on set, a vocalist worked on set to provide atmosphere for the actors; singer Lillian Rosine is credited as having "introduced the idea" and may have performed this task on the Forbidden Hours set.

As originally scripted, Prince Michael eventually marries his betrothed in order to keep peace between his nation and hers. The concluding scene showed him passing a convent where Marie now resides as a nun. This ending, which deliberately recalled Student Prince, was changed to a happier one, but press materials were still issued by the studio detailing the original ending, causing some confusion in the press.

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