Second Wife

First, I agree with the review by Art-22 in all respects. In addition, this is exactly what I prefer in an early Talkie, that is lots of talking. This film, and so many of its contemporaries, is essentially a stage play enacted for the cameras. As such it is a valuable record of Broadway at that time. Absent a time machine, this is our only way to experience something very wonderful, that is the American stage in the 1920s and 1930s. And let us give credit to Miss Lee and Mr. Nagel, both of whom were medium sized stars of the Silent Cinema. Here they are making the transition to a whole new world with bravery and sheer talent. This is not one of those films where the camera was nailed to the floor. Some actual camera movement and notice that some of the shots show a simulated ceiling above the set. Radio Pictures put some money into this production, especially the Art Moderne second apartment. Well worth watching if you like that era, otherwise deathly boring and silly!

As with many domestic dramas of the time, the mores and actions of the characters are very dated today. I found it incredulous that Lila Lee considered divorcing Conrad Nagel on a very minor point. He gets a cablegram that his son at a school in Switzerland is deathly ill, but if he goes there he might save him. He decides to go, which starts the trouble. She's hurt, not because she is expecting a child any day now, but because they didn't come to that decision together. She explains that if he had talked it over with her, she would have urged him to go. It's hard to conceive that with his son's life possibly in the balance, she would even think twice about his decision to go, especially since he explained that women have babies now with little risk, and she agreed with him. (Times being what they were, he had to go by ship and would be away a month or so.) So the movie had two strikes against it for me on this point alone.

The acting wasn't too bad. Romantic star Conrad Nagel gave his usual reserved performance. Lovely Lila Lee was believable as the second wife afraid that Nagel's memory of his first wife might hurt their marriage. Hugh Huntley had the best lines and gave the best performance as the heavy, more or less, trying to split the couple up. And I enjoyed Mary Carr as the long-time housekeeper who is not afraid to speak her mind. But the film is a two-set movie and very stage-bound - there's not one exterior shot. Note also that for a woman about to give birth, Lila Lee was as thin as a rail.

Walter Fairchild's (Conrad Nagel)'s first wife has died some time ago, and he is planning to remarry Florence (Lila Lee). Walter's housekeeper Mrs. Rhode (Mary Carr) warns him against remarriage, but also says she doesn't think his first marriage was happy either. What? She doesn't think the guy is entitled to any happiness? But that's not the only odd thing going on in this episode of Erratic Reaction Theater. It's really a smorgasbord of strange reactions and antiquated ideas.

Walter has a son by his first wife, and as soon as he and Florence are married he ships Junior off to boarding school in Switzerland....for a year! Because he thinks he and Florence deserve a real honeymoon. Oh, and he tells his second wife when still courting her that he never loved the first wife. Hmmm. Florence had better take care of her health or he could be saying that about her when courting the third wife. And so on.

Florence becomes pregnant almost immediately after marrying Walter, and apparently this is still the age of women being confined during late pregnancy, because when someone comes calling for her, the maid says that of course Mrs. Fairchild doesn't go out anymore nor does she see anyone given her condition!

The producton is very statically staged, very much like a play. Outisde a table full of men at a business banquet there are only five players with very many lines at all.

I'd recommend this for the film history buff. The two leads - Conrad Nagel and Lila Lee - were silent players, and their acting style still shows some holdover traits from the silent era.

Do take note of Mary Carr, who plays the maid. She entered films in 1916 at the age of 42, and acted in the first all talking feature film "Lights of New York". She died in 1973 at the age of 99.