TV Time Tunnel: Strictly "Forbidden!"

At no time was it planned for me to profile the 1984 TV-movie Obsessive Love and then turn around days later to profile the 1982 TV-Movie Forbidden Love, both of these starring Yvette Mimieux. It's just that viewing one led to a recommendation for the other and, after checking the project out, I was left with no choice but to offer up a take on Forbidden Love as well! I think the reasons will become apparent. Nothing about this run-of-the-mill promo photo led me to believe that it would be a must-see. But it wound up being so, especially for anyone who's even a passing fan of its male star. 

Said star is Mr. Andrew Stevens, a longtime Underworld fave. He and Mimieux "meet cute" in a rustic, ski lodge bar. He wants her to pass the (least convincing ever!) guacamole from her end of the bar (!) to him, but he ends up with his hand in it. 

Liking what he sees, he lingers around the ladies room door for her to come out, but happens to turn away just as she exits...! 

The next day, out on the slopes, he sees a hapless skier go ass-over-tit and heads over to see if the person is all right. You see he's a medical intern. It's Mimieux, of course. She has an ankle sprain and has to be taken away by the ski patrol. 

His other intern buddies want to know all the details of his encounter with the attractive, but older, lady. 

As for Mimieux, she's a wildly successful catalog entrepreneur. Here, she's discussing things with her assistant (Jill Jacobson, who was also her coworker in Obsessive Love.) 

Stevens reports to an older doctor played by one-time movie leading man Jeffrey Lynn. Lynn was known for the Four Daughters (1938) films and was in All This, and Heaven Too (1941) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949) as well. He'd also been considered for Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939) before Leslie Howard was cast. 

While Stevens is futzing around with an alarm clock at the hospital gift shop, Mimieux appears. She's on the board of the hospital. Still intrigued by her, he asks her to dinner that evening. 

At the restaurant, she notes the exorbitant prices on the menu and, knowing what an intern makes, convinces him to let her pay. 

As their "date" comes to a close, they clearly share a chemistry. Though nothing happens apart from a kiss on her cheek, he's feeling something. She invites him to come to her house for a party she's throwing 

His buddy Randy Brooks is in the business of renting out his sport coats to his fellow interns and Stevens needs one for the party.  

He pulls up to her "house" and discovers that it's a gargantuan mansion! 

He's stopped at the door by her sniffy butler, but is permitted entry. 

When Mimieux asks the butler to put Stevens' (admittedly modest) bouquet in a vase, he snorts, "a crystal vase?" 

Stevens makes himself a plate of food, finds a comfy chair and then - on only two hours of sleep - accidentally dozes off! He sleeps all the way through to the next morning when the butler opens the blinds. 

Mimieux has been seeing a man closer to her age, with the same refined tastes that she has, but her heart isn't really in it. When he brings her home after taking her to a show, he's left at the door. 

Once inside, she discovers a clown & balloon display which Stevens has left for her, along with a thank you note. She beams and calls him at the hospital. She then invites him for a relaxing day in the sun by her pool. He agrees to come so long as she wears a bikini. 

She does just that, looking quite fine in it. But it's what he wears that really melts our butter...!

He's lounging around on a float with nothing on but a tiny li'l Speedo, the Underworld's favorite swimwear!

Finally, he seems to have actually gotten her attention. And ours!

Now we have to confess... Stevens is wearing makeup here (on his face and likely his body, too), as was the usual course of the day. But he's just adorable!

As the younger object of desire in this film, he's given endless flattering camera shots. 

She sends him drifting out into the water while his eyes are closed (but ours are WIDE open!) and then jumps on him, getting him wet and knocking him off the float. 

Thus begins an underwater love ballet that's performed completely by Stevens and Mimieux with no doubles.

I swear this telefilm was viewed by one William Higgins who later provided a more explicit, gay approach with it for his 1984 classic California Summer! 

Just so I understand it right, the actors were paid to swim around underwater all day, embracing and rubbing up all over one another? LOL 

Unfortunately for them, this aquatic interlude is interrupted when Mimieux's date from the prior evening shows up to return some glasses she left in his car. He gets in a little bit of a snit and leaves with a flag of surrender. 

Stevens feels bad about messing up her apparent relationship, but she isn't concerned about that. She just wonders if this burgeoning thing with Andrews is "right." Nonetheless, they share their first kiss.

She's thirteen years his senior, which somehow is a societal crime unless a man is the one who's older... (In some ways, this is a bit of an update of All That Heaven Allows, 1955, and little had changed, apparently, in the intervening years.) Anyway, he's ready to move to the next level, so he comes to her home late at night and before you know it they head upstairs...

Now they embark on a full-on relationship, with runs on the dock...

...and Thomas Crown-ish chess games by the fire. 

One day she takes her new boy toy to watch a photo shoot for some articles that will be for sale in her catalog. 

The photographer gets one glimpse of Mr. Dimples and declares that he is just what's needed to shore up the pictures. 

Next thing you know, Stevens has been slickered down and is serving Zoolander glares at the camera while scantily-clad babes hang all over him. 

Thus begins the first kink in their relationship as Mimieux observes her man being slithered on by young models. A P.A. says to Mimieux, "I didn't know you smoked" to which she replies, "I DON'T." 

When I was a kid, I recall a certain men's hairspray being marketed with either the "wet look" or the "dry look." Stevens is adorbs any way!

Perhaps as a bid to help mark her territory, Mimieux sends her intern a box with new, pricy duds. And he looks good in them, too. 

'Course he also looks good out of them! 

Now Stevens is living at the mansion with Mimieux. And one day when he's fresh in the door from work, she's on the phone with her daughter, who's off at college, but planning a visit home. She tells the girl that there have been a few "changes" at home....!

On the subject of family matters, Stevens places a call back home to his parents Lynn Carlin and Dana Elcar. They mention his upcoming birthday and something they want to deliver to him. He's subletting his modest apartment and informs the new resident to keep an eye out for the package.

On his big day, he is at lunch with Mimieux and insists on covering the check himself. It's a rare gesture of independence as he's continuously on the receiving end of her largess. 

Speaking of, she's arranged for a gorgeous convertible be be awaiting his arrival back at the manse after their lunch, but -- oopsie -- his parents have unexpectedly come to town. Having gone to his apartment and then been directed to his new digs, they are mystified.  

Once back, she's excited to see his reaction to her present, but he only has eyes for one thing: his parents' car in the driveway! 

They are more than startled by the fact that their son now lives in this estate with a woman more than a dozen years older. An attempt at dinner together is made, but it doesn't end well. 

Stevens is also catching it from his fellow interns at the hospital once his modeling photo hits the catalog, led by the imbecilic Jerry Houser (which is a redundancy in terms as a rule.)

Why these guys even have the "joanna bitton, inc" catalog in their hands is never explored.

After one too many of Mimieux's stuffy society dinners, Stevens wants to throw a party with people his own age. So the butler mans the grill and the hostess is pouring wine into crystal goblets out by the pool...!

To the surprise of virtually no one, the party soon devolves into a melee, with several people being pushed into the pool.

This is followed by many of the remaining guests jumping into the pool. 

Carefree Stevens can't seem to grasp why Mimieux isn't down for this sort of shindig. 

I would have Emmy-nominated the costumer if it had been up to me...! LOL Stevens places a call to his father, who hasn't spoken to him since the visit. 

Elcar, busy working in his butcher shop, refuses to answer Stevens' call. (Dig that cordless phone with antenna! My father had one of those, which we used out at his pool.)

He does finally hey ahold of his mother and announces that he's coming for a visit. She insists that if he does, it's alone and not with his new squeeze.

He has to borrow money from his new love in order to get there, but he does head home. 

Once there, he's told by Elcar that he's somewhere along the line of either a kept man or a gigolo and he wants nothing to do with his son under these circumstances. 

Later, shortly after Stevens' returns, Mimieux's daughter has come back to the nest. 

Before her mother can break the news about her live-in, the daughter Lisa Lucas spies him out by the pool in one of his skimpy swimsuits. 

Needless to say, her reaction to his presence is less than welcoming. 

He isn't even given a chance to make a good impression. But we like what he's wearing. 

And... his work is becoming affected as well. Lynn informs him that he passed along an incorrect file and a woman almost received the wrong surgery as a result!

Mimieux has tickets to the ballet with several of her society friends and takes Stevens along to give him a taste. (And, yes, someone does make mention of the way the dancer fills out his tights....!) I don't know a lot about ballet, but this appears to be a two-person version of Swan Lake? Because there ain't nobody else around on stage. Ever...

In the lobby at intermission, the group spies someone headed their way. 

It's wealthy gorgon Virginia Gregg and her own boy toy. 

The sarcastic (and apparently horny) Gregg makes insinuations about Mimieux's relationship with Stevens. Eventually, he and the blond gigolo have a confrontation in the men's room and then the couple bolts. 

Stevens drags his lady to a youth-dominant nightclub where she again feels out of place. 

Their communication begins to suffer as pressure continues to mount from seemingly all sides. 

Ultimately, some tough choices must be made. 

As I say, fans of Stevens, who was truly at or near his all-time physical peak and appeal, cannot afford to miss this one. He's so easy on the eyes and generally charming, if occasionally a bit dense. The movie can be viewed free with ads on Tubi right here. 

Like the aforementioned Obsessive Love, this was released on home video. (This was released by HBO even though the movie premiered on CBS.) 

As most of you know, I love, worship and adore vintage TV-movies, but so often they are only available for viewing in some horrid third or fourth generation video that makes them look blurry and cheap. This one is in a beautiful print and has lovely location settings. 

The End!