Forbidden Fruit

With the exception of artsier fare like THE CHEAT and THE WHISPERING CHORUS, DeMille's silent output tends to be overlooked. A real shame, since his so-called high society films are a delight. FORBIDDEN FRUIT is my favorite to date: it's briskly paced and graced with jaw-dropping art deco aesthetics. The story is a simple Cinderella retelling, but a very effective one, inserting a bit of crime drama into the mix. For once, I was actually enamored with Agnes Ayres, an actress often dismissed by silent movie geeks as underwhelming and matronly. Here, she's the perfect fairy tale heroine.

May not have Gloria Swanson, but still not a movie to be missed.

Cecil B. DeMille is in good form in this drama centering on a poor seamstress (Agnes Ayres) who gets caught up in a web of deceit and murder when she accepts an invitation by a social climber (Kathlyn Williams) to fill out her dinner table by posing as Natalie Webb. The scheme is to fill the table with pretty young women to stall a potential business partner (Forrest Stanley) from leaving town before he can invest in the husband's (Theodore Roberts) oil venture.

But Ayres is married to a shiftless lout (Clarence Burton) and is therefore "forbidden fruit," as she tells Stanley when he becomes infatuated with her. In a subplot, the butler (Theodore Kosloff) has hidden is jail record and is planning to rob the family jewels.

After a domestic squabble, Ayres decides to accept an invitation for the weekend to see Stanley. Meanwhile, Kosloff and Burton team up to rob the jewels, but they get caught in the act and Ayres is exposed as a fraud.

Good story and all the actors are good. But the sets and costumes almost overwhelm the actors, especially with the beautiful gold tint. DeMille was famous for his attention to interior design and fashion, and here is an eye-popping example. Not only do we see the little seamstress transformed into a gowned and bejeweled beauty, but we also see her in a few "Cinderella" fantasies that are even more over the top in fashion design.

Ayres is quite good as the seamstress but she lacks the hauteur Gloria Swanson brought to these DeMille heroines. All the other actors are solid. Co-stars include Julia Faye and Lillian Leighton as house maids and Margaret Loomis and Conrad Nagel as the actors in the play called "Forbidden Fruit."

Apart from admiring DeMille's attention to detail in this film, I felt absolutely nothing. He can't tell a story because he doesn't engage with his actors. He just hands them a script, expects them to know what they're doing, and then collaborates with the cinematographer. He is a painter rather than a director.

The 40 year old Cecil B. DeMille was obviously gearing this film towards a middle class female audience. He pays careful attention to the clothes that the leading lady wears and the shopping that she buys. She is presented as the trendy woman of the 1920's, and sort of isolates the male community.

Mary Maddock is a poor seamstress who works for the wealthy Mrs. Mallory. Mr. Mallory attempts to make a business deal with Nelson Rogers. To entice the young man, Mrs. Mallory invites him to a dinner party, promising him that his partner will be the prettiest girl in town. But when his partner us unable to attend, Mrs. Mallory enlists Mary in the role. Mrs. Mallory and her servants transform Mary into a desirable woman. Rogers falls for her, unaware that Mary is married to a louse. Mary's husband conspires with Giuseppe, the Mallory's butler, to steal some jewels from the Mallory home. During the theft, Mary's husband discovers Mary sleeping at the Mallory's home and assumes she is selling herself. Can Mary extricate herself from this mess?

This is an odd film. I'm sure DeMille was going for melodrama (the title cards are rife with morality). There are some references to Adam and Eve ("forbidden fruit" ... get it? Get it?), but also scenes with Cinderella fantasies (which were pretty bad). But several scenes are comic and the movie borders on farce. Theodore Roberts, as Mr. Mallory, plays his usual cigar-chomping character, and provides some of the comic relief. Rogers makes a pleasant leading man, although his outfit in the Cinderella scenes is way too much.

Ayres is quite beautiful, even before she is "transformed." In what might be an "in" joke, one scene involves the Mallorys, along with Mary and Rogers, watching a play in a theater. The actors onstage are Conrad Nagel and Margaret Loomis, and the play is entitled "Forbidden Fruit."