AllMovie

Forbidden Woman was the first production by PDC Pictures to be released after the defection of the company's founder Cecil B. DeMille (though DeMille's brother William upheld family tradition by supervising the picture). Threatened by the imperialistic inventions of the French army, an Arab sultan (L. Snegoff) calls upon his half-French granddaughter Zita (Jetta Goudal) for aid. Zita sneaks into the French camp in hopes of getting her hands on vital military information, going so far as to marry French colonel Gautier (Victor Varconi) to maintain her "cover." Complicating her scheme is Gautier's musician brother Jean (Joseph Schildkraut), with whom Zita falls hopelessly in love. Feeling that Jean has betrayed him, Gautier arranges for his brother to be drafted in the army and shipped off to Africa, where the film comes to its operatic conclusion.