Forbidden Fruit

Mary Maddock brings money home by working as a seamstress. Her husband Steve is out of work with no real prospect of finding any. The family Mary works for are chasing a business deal to do with oil. The rich man they need for it is called Nelson Rogers, and he is about to leave town. To keep Rogers there, Mrs Mallory arranges a dinner party. She invites Mary as her own guest, meaning Rogers to take an interest in her and stay. Mary becomes the instrument of a bargain that way. The film tells a difference of class in the shape of melodrama. Agnes Ayres and Forrest Stanley take the leads in Cecil B. DeMille’s American film of 1921.