With Fine Manners, silent-screen superstar Gloria Swanson ended her association with Paramount Pictures; her subsequent star-vehicle productions would be made independently through Swanson's off-screen romantic interest, financier Joseph P. Kennedy. Scripted by James Ashmore Creelman (of King Kong fame), Fine Manners casts Swanson as Orchid Murphy, a chorus girl who falls in love with waiter Brian Alden (Eugene O'Brien). Only Alden isn't really a waiter, but an incognito millionaire. Once the artifice is revealed, Alden sets about to make Murphy more "acceptable" for his upper-crust family. She goes through a grueling series of lessons in the social graces, emerging as the perfect lady--too perfect for Murphy's tastes! He begs her to be "herself" again, which, of course, she does.