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I find early De Mille films to be wildly inconsistent ranging from astonishing (The Cheat) to terrible (The Squaw Man). Thus I wasn't expecting much, but ending up really enjoying this one. I hadn't seen many early Gloria Swanson silents, so it was interesting to see her in the picture that really made her. It's easy to see the appeal even if she doesn't get much to do, De Mille just loads her up in fancy clothes and films her. Fortunately she has the charisma to make her stand out.

Here she plays Leila Porter, the wife of successful but disinterested banker and onion-eater James Denby Porter (Elliott Dexter). Feeling neglected by her husband, Leila leaves him for the charming Schuyler Van Sutphen (Lew Cody), only to discover that her former husband's onion breath is far less of a problem than having an unfaithful and incompetent roustabout for a husband. James undergoes a transformation, including giving up his beloved onions, and is determined to win Leila back. It all makes for a fun and occasionally astute exploration of marital woes. Its strength is that it maintains its light touch rather than endeavoring towards heavy-handedness, and at 80 minutes it breezes by.

No more corned beef and cabbage for her!

This little romantic comedy clips along from scene to scene with a few exotic twists (some imaginary scenes and a costume party). All of this is centered around the wife of the husband(s) who is looking to break out of the doldrums, played by Gloria Swanson (she is twenty here!). Both the leading men have a natural air that is convincing and of course Swanson is perfect in all kinds of moods, from frivolous to worried to hopeful.

Behind all the games and apparent lightheartedness is that old serious problem of staying in love and not straying in love. There's a little corniness, but director DeMille is on top of keeping it snappy and believable in all. As with many films from this period, the subtitles do not just tell what they are saying (or thinking) but often give a kind of philosophical insight, as if to justify the tragedy (or raciness). And there is that higher purpose here, probably better without the instructional text, but it's part of the narrative style, and it's kind of quaint.

If you are looking for visual or formal amazement, you won't find it here. But as a story, well acted, and filmed with precision and economy, it's really a great example. The events might not come as a total surprise, but it's such a modern love story, set almost a hundred years ago, it's a gas. And did I saw Swanson was perfect?

Gloria Swanson (as Leila Porter) is an understandably bored wife. Workaholic husband Elliott Dexter (as James Denby Porter) has "lost his romance" along with his waistline; he also smokes cigars in bed, eats onions, and snores. He can barely remember his own anniversary - which is attended by caddish Lew Cody (as Schuyler Van Sutphen); the younger man eyes Ms. Swanson's voluptuous figure, and flirts unabashedly. Soon, Swanson is drawn to Mr. Cody. Then, Mr. Dexter decides to try and get her back. Who will win?

The three principals are fine, with Swanson most impressive in the pivotal role as the woman torn. Julia Faye grabs supporting honors as Cody's other interest, "Toodles"; off-screen, she tempted director Cecil B. DeMille. The DeMille touch is evident; especially in an imaginary sequence wherein Cody promises Swanson... "Pleasure… Wealth… Love…"

******* Don't Change Your Husband (1/26/19) Cecil B. DeMille ~ Gloria Swanson, Elliott Dexter, Lew Cody

Cecil B. DeMille directed a series of domestic comedy-dramas in the late teens and early 20s. He found his perfect leading lady for these provocative pieces in Gloria Swanson. In Don't Change Your Husband, Swanson plays a bored housewife whose wealthy businessman husband (Elliott Dexter) pays more attention to work than to her. She is chased by a handsome roue (Lew Cody) until she relents and divorces the boring husband for the new lover.

Things soon become familiar and Swanson discovers the new husband is as neglectful as the first. To make matters worse she discovers Cody has a woman on the side (Julia Faye). After several confrontations and convenient meetings, things are resolved.

This was a smash hit in 1919 and helped make Gloria Swanson a major star. Although she was only 20 when she filmed this she is very good as the maybe foolish wife. She looks great and wears some stunning gowns.

There is one memorable scene that is 100% DeMille in which Cody is luring Swanson with promises of wealth, pleasure, and love. As he coos to her she imagines the scenes. Pleasure is a fantastic scene of Swanson in a spidery hammock swinging out over a pool while people dance around. Wealth is a scene in which Swanson is gowned like a Babylonian queen as servants bring her chests of jewels, which shes tosses aside. Love is a scene in which she is a wood nymph making love in a forest glade with a Pan-like character (Ted Shawn). Pure hokum but very entertaining, and Swanson looks great.

Dexter is very good as the bland husband who shaves off his moustache and starts to work out in order to win his wife back. Cody is also good as the fake charmer who is a liar and cheat. Faye is funny as the bitchy other woman--named Toodles no less--who gets hers. Sylvia Ashton plays Mrs. Huckney. Ted Shawn was married to Ruth St. Denis and together they were groundbreaking and influential modern dancers (of the Denishawn School).

Swanson impresses me more every time I see her. She seems to have been such a natural actress and yet there is a way that the camera captures her expressive face that is just mesmerizing. She's a joy to watch.

Very entertaining film with lots of color tints in varying scenes to keep things lively. And a lot of the furnishings are back in style 86 years later.

Don't Change Your Husband is, on the one hand, the beginning of a series of lightweight marital comedies from Cecil B. DeMille. On the other it is his first picture to star Gloria Swanson, probably the greatest actress of the silent era, and is the film which made her a star.

Although the old DeMille formula was beginning to change, and his films were becoming wordier and less purely visual, with such an expressive performer as Swanson we regain much of that silent storytelling style. Her character does very little, but conveys volumes through subtle gesture and facial expression – with a particular talent for looks of disdain. In real life Swanson was herself coming towards the end of her disastrous marriage to Wallace Beery, and it's possible that this fact fuelled her convincing performance.

As if to best complement his leading lady's talents, DeMille's use of framing and close-ups is particularly strong here. He uses cinematic technique to show off the acting – often holding Swanson in lengthy close-ups at key moments – and also to clarify the story visually. For example, when we are introduced to the character of Toodles, she is shown reflected three times in a dressing table mirror. Her character disappears from the story, only to become important towards the end. That attention-grabbing first shot of her helps us remember who she was. Later, at the anniversary dinner, Swanson and future husband number two Lew Cody are framed together in one shot, while Elliot Dexter is isolated in his own frame. Also – and this is a sign of the increasing sophistication of cinema in general – there is much use of reaction shots – for example the disapproving glance of the bishop when Cody acts out his intentions with the wedding figure dolls.

In contrast to DeMille's visual narrative method was the increasingly verbose screen writing of his collaborator Jeanie Macpherson. As I've remarked in several other comments, Macpherson could put together a strong and dramatic story, but like DeMille she tended to state her themes in a somewhat pretentious and flamboyant style. And so we get these very long quasi-philosophical title cards about the pitfalls of married life which, if they improve the story at all, it is only because they are unintentionally funny. For example, only Jeanie Macpherson could come up with a line like "Fate sometimes lurks in Christmas shopping". Fortunately though in this picture these titles mostly introduce scenes rather than break them up.

Although the pictures he made around this time tended to be small scale, it is at this point that DeMille seemed to develop his taste for the spectacular. You can see him start to sneak in excuses for a bit of razzmatazz like the little fantasy scenes of Swanson being showered with "Pleasure, wealth and love". It wouldn't be until the early twenties after the unofficial embargo on historical pictures was lifted that he would get the chance to go all out with the grand spectacle.

All in all, Don't Change Your Husband is a fairly decent DeMille silent picture, although to be honest it is only really the presence Gloria Swanson that lifts it above the average. It's curious though that this is supposedly a comedy, and Swanson was cast at least in part because of her background at Mack Sennett's slapstick factory. She hated comedy acting, and here gives a dramatic rather than a comic performance. It makes sense then that the only straight drama she did with DeMille, Male and Female, was by far the strongest of their collaborations.

In his autobiography Cecil B. DeMille did not spend time on Don't Change Your Husband. Except to say that this was his first film with a new discovery Gloria Swanson. He then went on for a couple of pages talking about his friendship over the years with her.

Don't Change Your Husband was one of DeMille's silent comedies with a Victorian moral to every one. Here Swanson is a bored wife married to comfortable and stuffy DeMille regular Elliott Dexter. He barely notices the wife any more, keeping his head buried in the newspaper in the morning. He also has a nasty habit of eating raw onions and that will kill romance like nothing else will.

But he's provided for Swanson well including a nice set of jewelry and even though Dorothy Parker hadn't said it yet, diamonds are a girl's best friend.

One day a real Snidely Whiplash type villain Lew Cody starts putting the moves on Swanson. She divorces Dexter and marries Cody. But Cody just wants her jewels for business and to shower on another and badder girl Julia Faye.

DeMille was a child of the Victorian era and this film ends just about as the title suggests. The title itself really gives it all away.

Julia Faye who was one of DeMille's mistresses appeared in most of his feature films right up to the second Ten Commandments. Another was Jeanie MacPherson who was an actress as well as a screenwriter. She did the script for this and many other DeMille films. Lastly there was Gladys Rosson who was his private secretary and on every set right up to The Greatest Show On Earth. He had a regular harem going, but all these women even after the relationship was over were well taken care of work wise.

In fact Faye has one of the more meatier parts in her career as the other woman in Don't Change Your Husband. If this was sound one can only imagine the dialog between Swanson and Faye.

Don't Change Your Husband was the beginning of a fine collaboration between a great director and great star.

The film "Don't Change Your Husband" Starring Gloria Swanson and Directed by award winning director Cecil Demille was overall a pretty fun film with twists thrown in there to keep things interesting. The film revolves around Leila Porter (Gloria Swanson's character) and how she basically got sick of her husband James resulting in divorce, she thought that once she was a away from him she would be much happier with another man but thing's didn't turn out the way she would have liked them to. She moves on to marry another man and sure enough things didn't go as exactly planned when she realizes that he's much worse than her original husband - hence the title "Don't Change Your Husband." It's just a fun film with a somewhat shallow plot but fun nonetheless, the story line keeps you interested and although it is a silent film it's still worth seeing at least once, not that there's anything wrong with a good silent film. Great Actors and Great Story line.

I found this movie to be filled with irony. But watching the movie you can almost for see what will happen. Leila is a confused, bored house wife, who is constantly looking for happiness. When she thinks she finds true happiness, she clings onto it, leaving behind all that she knew. But she finds her self almost comparing notes between her ex and her current husband. She learned that if she only had communicated more about what had bothered her in her previous marriage, that it could have been salvaged a lot easier that she intended it to be. She realizes that words are nothing with out action, but she learns that too far into her second marriage and finds herself looking back and hoping for change once again. The main conflict in this movie, is Leila vs herself. You can not have true happiness with out yourself being truly happy. I liked this movie, but I would only recommend this movie to women, I can't see a man truly finding enjoyment in this movie.

Visually, "Don't Change Your Husband" is a pretty film, with lush interiors, and that's typical of director Cecil B. DeMille. Unfortunately, this is overall a very superficial film, which is also typical of DeMille. At least, "Don't Change Your Husband" isn't as insultingly commercial or absurd as "Male and Female" and other subsequent DeMille pictures. Additionally, Elliott Dexter's transformation as Mr. Porter is impressive.

This is a superficial film by a superficial filmmaker and likewise the characters are superficial. The story is about a wife who leaves her foolish husband because he eats onions before kissing her, his shoes are old, and he's sloppy with his cigar smoking and because the other man shows her an exotic fantasy scene instead of his vices while courting her. I can't take this kind of movie seriously and, thankfully, DeMille didn't' ask for one to. The treatment is often light, and the dramatic parts don't drag that down too much. It's better that it's just fluffy rather than pretentious. "Don't Change Your Husband" is the second in DeMille's trilogy on extramarital relationships, between two other catchy titles: "Old Wives for New" and "Why Change Your Wife?"

The film "Don't Change Your Husband" was a romantic comedy that caught my eye and kept me interested. Being a female i'm more attracted to romantic films, that was apart of my interest in this film. Even though this film was a silent film it gave so much meaning and you could really understand what each character was feeling and how what their actions were. The actors played a really good part on their facial expressions and their body language. I wasn't sure how i was going to react to the silent film era but with each character really giving meaning through their facial and body expressions, it really pulled me in.

I also thought it was similar to todays life, even though it was produced in 1919, you could relate it to todays time, most women want the good looking man and in the end it doesn't turn out to be what you expected and you want what you did have at one point.

This movie was certainly an interesting one to watch. The storyline is one that I can see happening even in today's modern era. All the characters had personality traits that travel through the ages.

For this movie I did not expect how beautiful the setting would be. All the different sculptures, paintings, furniture, rooms and decorations kept your mind thinking and alive as the movie played on. The costumes were beautiful and it was something you don't see often in movies today.

Overall, I would recommend this movie. It was certainly one that kept my interest although it was a bit boring in the beginning. The plot is something that can happen today and it can teach us all a lesson about how to deal with our lives.

This is apparently the first film featuring Gloria Swanson--the film that made her a breakout star. While she was good in the film, I can't see how this performance in particular was so noteworthy at the time--but, still it was a very good film.

Gloria plays the wife of a rich slob that continually takes her for granted. He cares little for his grooming, eats onions and forgets their anniversary! And, at the same time, a Lothario comes into their lives and begins paying a lot of attention to Gloria and her dippy husband doesn't even notice or give her any reason NOT to cheat on him. Ultimately, she divorces her hubby and marries the smooth-talking Romeo. However, while the movie could have just been an overdone melodrama (they were pretty common at the time), it takes some interesting twists and turns and is an imaginative and fun film. While not the greatest silent film I have seen, it is a standout and deserves to be remembered.

By the way, the DVD release from Image Entertainment is surprisingly good--with a decent print and music. This hasn't always been true of other Image releases (particularly how sloppily they handled the Chaplin releases).

For his 1950 movie, "Sunset Boulevard," on an aging, former silent movie actress who harbors delusions on returning to the silver screen, director Billy Wilder was able to get actress Gloria Swanson to appear in the unglamorous role of Norma Desmond. The plot has her thinking director Cecil B. DeMille wants her for a big role in his next movie, only to find out the studio just wanted to rent out her classic automobile.

The sequence is a rare look at the behind-the-scenes of these two legends who initially linked up in January 1919's "Don't Change Your Husband," the first of six movies DeMille directed Swanson. DeMille was in pre-production of his third of eventually six "comedy of marriage" series when the director, through the suggestion of his studio Famous Players-Lasky, was offered her acting services. He remembered the now 20-year-old actress' roles in her earlier Keystone comedies and felt she would be perfect for the part of a disenchanted wife to a rich husband who is wooed away by an admirer, only to find out her new hubby is much worse than her first one.

The movie public embraced Swanson's acting so much that "Don't Change Your Husband" became her first megahit and placed her in the rarified air of Hollywood's top actresses during the next few years.

Swanson was the lead in five of the next six DeMille directed films, which makes the pair's appearance in 1950's "Sunset Boulevard" all the more poignant. The actress, whose performance in the Wilder movie earned her a Best Actress nomination for the Academy Awards, shows the director unexcited about Norma Desmond's thinking she is wanted by him for his next production, which he isn't. The script fails to reflect the warmth the two had in their working relationship in the yearly 1920's that was seamless and amicable.

DeMille, who's seen directing on set his real movie, 1949's "Samson and Delilah" for the Wilder movie, is known for his large, cast of thousands spectacles. In "Don't Change Your Husband," at the 25 minute mark, DeMille introduces his trademark big-budget set when he films Swanson's fantasies of what her admirer describes what life will be like when she leaves her husband for him. The sequence is the highlight of the movie, a morality film whose aim is to inform its audiences that maybe the grass is not always greener when an unhappy wife (or husband) seeks more fertile pastures.

Don't Change Your Husband (1919)

** (out of 4)

Second in a semi-trilogy following Old Wives for New, this film tells the story of a husband (Elliott Dexter) who eats onions (?!?!?), neglects his wife (Gloria Swanson) and takes her for granted. The wife gets fed up after he forgets their anniversary so she divorces him for a better looking man (Lew Cody) who she thinks will treat her right but we all know he's going to turn out to be a jerk. This is a rather strange mix of light comedy and melodrama but the two don't mix well together. Whereas Old Wives for New was a pretty strong comment on society, this film just comes off as a tamed down version with the sexes switched. Perhaps my sense of humor just isn't where it should be but the constant running joke of the husband eating onions and then trying to kiss his wife just got boring to me. Perhaps a female would find these jokes funnier but I doubt it. Another problem I had was that the wife really wasn't that sympathetic. I honestly can't say that I cared for her in any way, shape or form and the strange thing is that the husband actually gets the sympathy. With that in mind, it's rather hard for us to want to see the husband take her back after the way she's treated him. This was apparently the film that finally launched Swanson as a star but I really didn't see anything here too special. Her performance here certainly wasn't in the same league as a Gish or Pickford but even if we don't put her up to those standards I still found the performance rather lacking. I wasn't impressed with Cody either as the playboy as he too come off rather stiff and wooden. Dexter on the other hand delivered a fine performance and he's the main reason to watch this film. I wouldn't say his comic timing was overly impressive but he did a fine job in the more dramatic moments. There are a couple interesting sequences here with a couple appearing as fantasy sequences where the wife dreams of what her life will be like with the playboy. The feeding of grapes is something to see but there are very few moments like this one.

The 1919 silent film "Don't Change Your Husband" is the equivalence of today's chick flick. Though this film was made is 1919, it deals with racy topics like adultery and marriage. The acting in this movie was good, especially since it is a silent film. The music and editing was very well done to compensate for no actual dialog.

The story line and the acting were both realistic. The story can happen in 1919 and in present day. As for the acting, even though the movie had very little dialog, the emotions that the actors were portraying were there and made the theme of the movie more realistic. The theme of this movie? Don't change husbands ladies because men are all the same!

This silent film's plot is similar to many modern day films. This film shows a typical love triangle story with a woman not realizing what she has until it is gone. I enjoyed in the film when Gloria Swanson's character Leila compares her husband Jim, to the charming Schuyler, and the slides fade in and out from one man's collar to the other, one man's cigar to the other and one man's shoes to the other. All signs showed Schuyler of being the man she was more attracted to. It did not seem at all realistic for 1919 whoever that it was so easy for Leila to leave her first marriage and then remarry. I liked how the movie revealed that things are not always how they seem. For instance, although Leila thought that Schuyler was such an amazing man and he promised to always love her, he still was out with other women and buying them things. This movie seemed as though it was a modern day filmed in the early 1900s. I could definitely picture this similar plot in any modern day movie.

One thing that seemed out of place was the music. The music seemed as though it was a disc playing over and over. The song would just end at random times and start at random times. It is almost as though the music did not fit with the film. I did love this movie and do recommend it. Although it is a silent film, it is almost as though you can hear what the characters are thinking.

DON'T CHANGE YOUR HUSBAND/THE GOLDEN CHANCE is the first of at least three double bill DVDs featuring early films by Cecil B. DeMille to be released by David Shepard of Film Preservation Associates and what an inspired choice it is. It provides a rare opportunity to see one of the major filmmakers of Old Hollywood develop and adapt his style to the changing tastes of the public of the time which in turn were influenced by the films that were being made.

THE GOLDEN CHANCE dates from 1915 and is in the mold of DeMille's earlier hard hitting melodrama THE CHEAT. This reworking of the Cinderella story in which an abused wife (Cleo Ridgely) is given the opportunity to be someone else in order to deceive a rich investor (Wallace Reid) is loaded with pungent social commentary as were many films from that era of filmmaking. Movies could entertain and make observations of contemporary society at the same time and the great early filmmakers in America like Porter, Griffith, Lois Weber and DeMille did just that. Although the film has the expected "happy ending" it nevertheless leaves a bitter taste in the mouth and remains for thought.

By the time of DON'T CHANGE YOUR HUSBAND in 1919 (his first film with Gloria Swanson) DeMille saw the handwriting on the wall and began to adapt his films to the post-WWI style of more entertainment, less commentary as the emergence of the major studios forever turned Hollywood into a big business enterprise where the bottom line became the most important issue although they were less blatant than today's studios about cost over content. Swanson is simply delightful, so fresh and spontaneous, as the wife who changes husbands only to discover that she was better off the first time around. However if she hadn't done that then he wouldn't have made the necessary improvements.

The Jazz Age was just ahead and the moral climate was changing. Although dealing with divorce in a playful manner the film dared to show that it was possible (as DeMille had earlier in OLD WIVES FOR NEW) and that notion was still quite shocking in 1919. Elliot Dexter as the husband who transforms himself after realizing what he's lost is totally believable and sympathetic while Lew Cody is the perfect shallow cad whose charm is only on the surface as Gloria eventually discovers.

It's a rare opportunity to see Cody as very few of his films have survived. He would eventually marry Mabel Normand in the late 1920's. The music provided by Rodney Sauer and the Mont Alto Orchestra is first rate and complements both films beautifully. An absolute must for fans of silent movies and a good opportunity to study early DeMille before he became the purveyor of historical extravaganzas...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

don't change your husband was movie t hat i really enjoyed. i think in all relationships at one time or another people feel like they wish they could change the one their with. the movie kept me interested with the story plot and mad me laugh at times. in the movie the characters did a good job interacting with each other. the body language and movements better give you a feeling of the emotion each character is trying to express. the feelings of each character really lured you into the movie. the tittle really fits this movie because in the end thats exactly how Gloria Swanson character was feeling.this movie is a lesson to all relationships to watch out for what you get your self into before you get there.