A slightly cynical Cinderella story: seamstress Agnes Ayres agrees to substitute for an ailing debutante at a ball. The shoe fits, and she decides to quit her wastrel husband and head for high society. “Forbidden Fruit fits the DeMille formula: the engaging plot, centered around the wealthy class and their servants, is replete with the conflict of love versus duty, and with marital infidelity, robbery and even murder.... Because DeMille's films have been overshadowed by those of (Griffith, Von Stroheim and Lubitsch), his influence on them has been undervalued. Yet, in Forbidden Fruit, the sexual and social irony created in the scenes of the wealthy wife's arrangement of the seating cards, the seamstress' replacement of her wedding band with a diamond ring, and her confrontation with five forks at the dinner party are all precursors of what became known as the Lubitsch touch.” (Jon Gartenberg, Museum of Modern Art)