Why Change Your Wife?

Why Change Your Wife (1920)

This is a great romp, getting better with every scene. It is not good to women, though, making them out to be selfish and catty. It also makes it seem that a woman's role is to be beautiful for her man, and if she isn't, he practically has the right to leave her. I mean, come on now!

The leads (three of them) are all first rate. The man is a charmer, really convincing and natural, Thomas Meighan. His wife (at first) is Gloria Swanson, a silent screen staple (especially for director Cecil B. de Mille who directed six straight films with Swanson, including the parallel, Don't Change Your Husband (1919). But the third other woman is Swanson's match, Bebe Daniels, and if she isn't as famous, it's only because time is fickle.

Because the three are so well balanced, both in ability and in the way they are given time together (in all three possible combinations, plus all three of them together), the film really builds momentum well. The modernity of flipping wives was probably part of the racy appeal, and it might seem a little staid by our standards, where there is (sometimes) less gravity to a marriage.

Music is key, which might seem odd for a silent film, but by showing us the 78 records being put on, the audience knows what the soundtrack would be. (The actually sound tacked on to my DVD version of this film is a brutal melange of found orchestral pieces that cut in and out, hither and tither.) For those interested in the actual piece called Hindustan that is key in three scenes (and key to the changing sentiments of the women) go to www.archive.org/details/JosephC.SmithsOrchestra-01-07 and you can actually click on piece to hear it (a lively pre-jazz dance type number).

So is this a pertinent film? In a way, it is. It's basic theme of paying attention to what your mate needs, and appreciating their attentions, is pretty timeless. But in other ways the film is sadly, painfully retrograde, and it isn't just because it's 1920. The way the women vie for the man, and the way he lets them, and ultimately the way he treats the Daniels character (who does him no wrong any more than the Swanson one does), is just cheap and tossed around for comedic purposes. Which is how you can take it and enjoy it. More than you'd expect.

Although the plot is not as absorbing as in his classics "The Affairs of Anatol" or "Male and Female" Cecil B. DeMille makes this romantic piece of fluff intoxicating still, especially if you enjoyed the romantic and sexual tension between Gloria Swanson and Thomas Meighan in the latter film. "Why Change Your Wife?" was made a year after "Male and Female" and the audience gets to see the two as a married pair: in the first scenes Tommy is shaving and Gloria is getting dressed. The interplay between them is fabulous and funny. She is always interrupting him in front of the bathroom mirror and he can't quite manage to button the back of her dress. So typical and true to life. She lectures him on his personal tastes: "must you have a dog?" and "you should listen to classical music and not tin pan alley" and "you should stop drinking/smoking..." The film shows the affects of nagging upon a marriage, and boy is THAT true to life!

Enter Bebe Daniels. She likes men with curly hair and Tommy Meighan fits the bill. She manages to attract Tommy away from Gloria; even though we know Tommy still loves Gloria, she still needs to be taught a lesson on men and marriage. She learns her lessons the hard way, but therein lies the fun for the audience. The moral of the story here is that wives should remember they are their husbands' sweethearts first, their wives second, and that they should not forget the romance that keeps a couple together and out of the divorce courts.

I don't want to give away more of the plot but see this film. If you are a woman watch it with your husband. You won't regret it.

Why Change Your Wife was part of Cecil B. DeMille's "marriage trilogy" and is a sly and well-acted 1920 silent film that stars Gloria Swanson as a dowdy and prissy wife whose husband (Thomas Meighan) is bored with. He wants fun and romance! So he trots off to a dressmaker to buy her a negligee to spice up the marriage. But an ambitious model (Bebe Daniels) recognizes him as her mother's old boss and sets out to trap him. Of course he is putty in her hands and she causes a divorce.

After the divorce Swanson overhears two women gossiping about her in the next changing room. She decides to "jazz up her lingerie" and win the husband back. Of course they all end up at the same Atlantic City hotel where the transformed Swanson (what a bathing suit!) catches his eye anew. Through a series of plot twists, including the manic cat fight between the two women with threats of throwing acid, poor Bebe concedes defeat and (after emptying his wallet of cash) leaves him to Swanson.

Good fun and all 3 stars are terrific. Also taking center stage are the women's fashions (hilariously "exotic") and the interior decor. DeMille was the first director to understand the importance of film as a TREND SETTER and basically created the product endorsement mania so prevalent in today's films.

Sylvia Ashton is Aunt Kate, Theodore Kosloff is the violinist, Lucien Littlefeld is the butler, and William Boyd is one of the hotel guests. The hotel is quite a spot, and mention should be made of the cat and dog fight which presages the battle between Swanson and Daniels. The dog is funny, and the cat is named Toodles, which was the name of the home wrecker played by Julia Faye in the preceding "marriage" film: Don't Change Your Husband.

Director Cecil B. De Mille and actress Gloria Swanson had a monster hit in 1919 with the slightly comic melodrama DON'T CHANGE YOUR HUSBAND about a tired husband who neglects his wife. The next year De Mille and Swanson were reunited for this film, WHY CHANGE YOUR WIFE, which is virtually a remake of the earlier film, only this time the wife is neglectful spouse. This movie is actually a far superior film to the original however because it's played almost entirely for laughs here and Thomas Meighan is a far better actor and more appealing romantic lead than Elliot Dexter in the first film.

Young matron Gloria Swanson is barely 20 but she might as well be 50 the way she dresses and with that nagging, sour attitude of hers. She whines when her husband's dog is indoors, complains about his choice in music, and basically has turned into a fussy aunt. Husband Meighan's attempts at affection are rebuffed and in desperation he decides to buy a sexy gown for her, falling into the lair of vampy clothes model BeBe Daniels. BeBe manages to break up their marriage before Gloria can blink those legendary blue eyes and Meighan scarcely has a moment to breathe before he finds himself in yet another marriage and this one more troublesome than the first.

The cast is terrific here; beautiful, chic Gloria is remarkably believable as the young woman who has gotten old before her time. Thomas Meighan is excellent as the husband who goes from being one wives' puppet to a similar role with the second missus. Silent movie fans who are more familiar with the later silent career of Meighan (actually less than a decade away) when he was a more austere screen presence may be surprised how dashing he was at this point in his career and very much a matinée idol. BeBe Daniels is absolutely delicious as the tramp who ultimately decides "the best thing about marriage is alimony". This delightful romantic comedy stills packs quite a punch after some 90 years.

In 1920, Cecil B. DeMille was already the king of Paramount. Titles would show a DeMille coin and he was the producer and director in charge and already had spectacles under his belt. But he also made romantic comedies that very much are a product of their times. His most famous female star of the late teens to early twenties was Gloria Swanson, who would go on to be a major silent star in her own right during the era.

Thomas Meighan is not so well remembered today except for hard core silent buffs. Few of his films are rarely revived and he died in 1936 after a two year bout with cancer. Another major silent star who did have some successes in sound was Bebe Daniels, probably most famous for singing "You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me" and breaking her leg in 42ND STREET.

Meighan and Swanson co-starred together in DeMille's MAN AND FEMALE a year previous to this one. Here, they are introduced as husband and wife in a script written by William DeMille, Cecil's brother. While Thomas shaves, Gloria pesters him into buttoning the back of her dress. It's a humorous modern day problem and both leads are funny as they frustrate each other.

She won't even let him listen to HINDISTAN - A FOX TROT on a vintage 78 and forces him to listen to A DYING POET instead. By the way, Hindistan is another name for India. There is throughout a condescending tone to non-whites. but it's not as bad as some other films. In fact, DeMille would be guilty of that throughout his career but I do bear in mind he wasn't alone and many were worse. More fun to watch, though, is what passed for high fashion in 1920. I don't think anyone would be caught dead today wearing what passed for bathing suits back then.

It is at the store where Meighan meets Daniels who gets to play a total vamp, even comically putting a heart size mole on her arm. She literally seduces him on the spot. While they go out, poor Gloria has her violin recital playing A DYING POET without her husband. Later on, straight laced Gloria Swanson reads about their marriage following her divorce. Well, two can play this game. Gloria goes to the store herself and gets herself some outrageous clothes and has several admirers follow her to a rich resort that has a great swimming pool where guests can sit. Somehow, Meighan and Swanson get back together while Daniels gets the violin player.

I really doubt people really lived like this in 1920, but romantic escapist films are made today. A fun little picture.