La proie pour l'ombre

When we think of Cecil B. DeMille we tend to think of lavish spectacles in period settings, often Biblical, featuring elaborately staged orgies, dances, battles, and at least one slightly naughty bathing sequence. Typically, after entertaining the audience with this material for several reels, DeMille would diligently underscore the story's lesson by punishing the wicked and rewarding the virtuous, and then wrap up the package with some stern moralizing. The director who crafted Old Wives for New hadn't yet developed into the master of Hollywood hokum he would become, but some of his soon-to-be-familiar motifs can be found here in embryonic form. Around the time this film was made DeMille (already working with his longtime collaborator, screenwriter Jeannie Macpherson) began a new series of popular dramas focused on married life in which contemporary mores were examined and questioned. Producer Jesse Lasky encouraged this move, based on a hunch that wartime audiences wanted modern stories which challenged the status quo -- up to a point, that is. The titles of these films often suggested more daring content than the stories actually delivered, for despite the modern trappings DeMille was essentially conservative in his storytelling, but you have to give the guy credit: he sure knew how to draw cash customers to the box office. Old Wives for New turned a handsome profit and set DeMille's course for years to come.

This film is introduced with a rather startling title card addressing the ladies in the audience through the character of Sophy Murdock, wife of the protagonist. Sophy is warned not to take her husband for granted just because she's already "landed" him, and not to become dowdy or bossy. The admonition concludes: "We must remember to trim our 'Votes for Women' with a little lace and ribbon -- if we would keep our man a 'Lover' as well as a husband." Soon afterward, DeMille introduces our protagonist Charles Murdock (played by Elliott Dexter), a brooding oil millionaire who has settled reluctantly into an unhappy marriage. The other main characters are introduced with the kind of quaint cinematic device that is so satisfying in silent movies: after a title card describes them as "the Five Pairs of Hands that Were to Weave the Threads of His Destiny," we are offered close-ups of five pairs of hands, each performing a task characteristic of the person to whom they belong. The chubby fingers of Sophy Murdock, the wife who has allowed herself to become dowdy (i.e. fat), pluck chocolates out of a candy box; Viola, a woman of loose morals, dips her brush in facial powder and daubs it on her face; Juliet, a noted fashion designer, carefully cuts fabric; Bladen, conniving secretary to Murdock, taps away at his typewriter keyboard; and Berkeley, a high-stepping old roué, sticks a key into the lock of his current girlfriend's apartment, opens the door, and enters. Once these introductions are out of the way, we concentrate on the unhappy marriage of the Murdocks.

The Murdocks have been married long enough to have two children who are on the verge of adulthood, but although Charles is still youthful and athletic, Sophy has become dumpy and depressive, lounging around the house in her robe reading the funny papers. They seem to have stayed together due to inertia rather than love. (They certainly look mismatched: imagine William Powell paired off with Marie Dressler.) When Charles broaches the subject of divorce Sophy won't hear of it, so the unhappy husband leaves for an extended camping trip with his son. Out in the woods he meets fashion designer Juliet Raeburn, also on vacation, and their friendship blossoms into love. Animal lovers aren't going to enjoy their "meet cute" scene, however: Charles and Juliet are each out hunting alone, and when they both shoot at the same bear they're brought together for their first conversation over the animal's carcass! In any event, the ensuing affair is a chaste one, but when they return to the city rumors begin to circulate. The situation worsens considerably when the woebegone Charles accompanies his high living business partner Berkeley for a night on the town with a couple of good- time gals, and things get out of hand. A shooting occurs, someone gets killed, there is an attempted cover-up to avoid scandal, poor Juliet Raeburn's name gets dragged through the mud, etc. etc. In the end, after the various complications have been sorted out, the virtuous characters are rewarded and even the "bad" ones get another chance . . . with one exception, anyhow.

Old Wives for New is, in short, a well produced soap opera but no more substantial than an episode of "Dynasty." For me, the story begins to lose any claim on credibility after the crime of passion, when the plot's improbabilities become increasingly obvious. (I haven't seen this film with an audience, but I believe there are moments towards the end that would provoke unintended giggles.) On the plus side, the film is a time-capsule of its era, particularly where clothing is concerned; DeMille's movies are known for sumptuous costuming, especially for the ladies, and this one boasts a lot of great 1918 vintage outfits for viewers who enjoy that sort of thing. It's also interesting to observe the characters' casual acceptance of adultery and divorce, attitudes we might associate with the Roaring Twenties, yet already present at this time. On the minus side, while the leading players are competent enough they're not very interesting, and there's no Gloria Swanson or Wallace Reid on hand to give things a boost. Theodore Roberts, who plays the old roué Berkeley, gives the flashiest performance, but he isn't on screen long. In sum, this is a moderately engaging silent drama that never rises above the standard level. It appears that DeMille did not approach the material with any unusual degree of interest or vigor, but not long afterward, when Miss Swanson arrived on the scene, their work together would produce more exciting results.

Old Wives for New has been labelled as a departure for DeMille, specifically the point at which he lost his "integrity" to embrace pure commercialism. This is not quite the case. For a start, DeMille had been unashamedly commercial since the day he stepped on to the set of The Squaw Man (his debut feature). What's more this film and the ones after it were still made with intelligence and style.

It is true that this is a particularly sensationalist piece, which came straight after one of DeMille's deepest and most poignant dramas, The Whispering Chorus, so perhaps the perception of Old Wives for New was more one of contrast than a clear break. Changes were indeed taking place in the old DeMille technique around this period, although the process had already begun at the time of The Whispering Chorus. The biggest change was that the films were becoming wordier. Each act is introduced with a lengthy, quasi-philosophical mini-essay. These were the work of DeMille's longtime collaborator (and mistress) Jeanie Macpherson, an excellent dramatic storyteller but not quite the poet she thought she was. The individual scenes are also broken up by far more "speech" titles than are necessary.

Still, DeMille never lost his flair for captivating images, and Macpherson never lost her skill at weaving drama, and there are plenty of touches of brilliance here. Each player is introduced as a pair of hands, their actions revealing their character. DeMille also works harder than ever before to visualise the characters' thoughts – cutting in shots of Florence Vidor when Elliot Dexter is thinking of her, for example.

The acting is so-so here, and to be honest there are not many scenes where the actors actually get the chance to show off their talents. This again is the fault of all those intertitles, plus dozens of inserts which DeMille also overused during this period. An honourable mention however goes to Theodore Roberts, who played dozens of roles for DeMille, from English aristocrats to Moses. He was very versatile so long as he got to ham it up. His highlight in Old Wives for New is a melodramatic murder sequence which sums up everything about the DeMille/Macpherson partnership – straining credibility to breaking point, yet executed with grand theatricality.

Although the wordiness of Old Wives for New does seem like a burden, I should point out that there aren't any more intertitles than the average Hollywood picture from this period – it's just that until recently DeMille had been a master of the long, unbroken take, and had barely used title cards. This change brought him more in line with his contemporaries. At this point in cinema history, the camera still did not move very much, so filmmakers aimed to bring drama to life through editing patterns – inserts, reverse angles and of course titles. The long shot in drama was dying out, and it would be a while before a new generation of directors – people like George Cukor and William Wyler – would revive it in the sound era.

Mary Pickford's popularity was off the charts in the year of 1918. Every movie fan loved her image of the innocent curly-haired girl/woman whose roles made her the sympathetic heroine. But the actress longed to branch out to tackle some meatier portrayals of personalities going against the grain of her likeability. The golden opportunity came when her associated scriptwriter Francis Marion came up with the idea to adapt William John Locke's 1913 "Stella Maris" into a movie.

The story about two girls, one wealthy, pretty, much loved but paralyzed in bed, and the other, orphaned, poor, homely and loathed by many her entire life, presented Pickford with the perfect opportunity to play an "ugly duckling" while still retaining her cutesy image. Through the advancement of film technology, Pickford became the first major movie star to play two roles simultaneously, with both characters in the same frame in January 1918's "Stella Maris." Director Marshall Neilan and his tech crew were able to pull off scenes of the two Mary's sharing seamless split-screens, giving viewers a realist look of the two polar opposites of the Mary's interacting with one another.

Pickford's performance(s) in "Stella Maris," especially playing the poor girl named Unity, has been cited as one of her most dramatic and convincing roles in her long, storied film career. Even Paramount Studio's president, Adolph Zukor, who was horrified at his prized actress appearing in such a sorry state as Unity, called her performance "the most remarkable thing which Mary Pickford has ever done for the screen."

Even though her Stella Maris character is adorable in the movie, she lives in a world of naivete, whose sheltered life gives her an unrealistic, pastel view of everyday life. When she meets the tough but downtrodden girl Unity, Stella has a tough time understanding the incredible burdens and beatings the orphan has experienced. The transformation the actress Pickford gives Unity in appearance, the drab clothes, the pulled back hair, the curved-spined back hobble in her step, is unlike anything the actress had performed before. And to contrast Unity's sad sack manifestation against the Pickford image in Stella in the same frame is a contrast unique in cinema. Movie goers were so impressed by the film that "Stella Maris" was the year's number two box office hit.

During his long silent and talkie career, Herr Cecil B. DeMille had a special fondness for comparing the old and the new, whether great events of humankind (like biblical stories) or local Amerikan happenings dealing with domestic problems of the new 20th society. Ancient or modern, these are universal issues.

"Old Wives For New" (1918) is typical of DeMille's interest in this theme of tension between the old and the new ; in this case, how old-fashioned conservative people try to adapt to the modern society with its rapidly changing shift from ancient values and habits. The film depicts the story of Herr Charles Murdock ( Herr Elliott Dexter ), a rich Amerikan businessman who has a miserable life that he hopes to change; it seems that he has power, money and anything a man could want… except love. He lives under the same luxurious roof with his wife, a careless woman who neglects her marriage duties and two youngsters who don't pay attention to their parents' problems… that is to say, a classical and typical marriage as in the 10's of the last century as the beginning of this new one.

Herr Murdock decides to take a holiday in order to get away from his wife for awhile by going hunting in the mountains with his son. He will meet accidentally and -with the help of a poor bear that died in said meeting- a young girl with whom he falls hopelessly in love. Happiness and hope will shine again in Herr Murdock's life but alas… the dream will fade when Frau Juliet ( Frau Florence Vidor ) discovers that her admirer is a married man.

"Old Wives For New" was one of those many Herr DeMille's silent films in which the Amerikan director depicted the Amerikan high society in modern times and all its complicated domestic problems. These films have a slight undercurrent of criticism of some of those novelties and social habits, intertwined always with sarcastic humour; a good combination to depict the classic war of the sexes including the eternal gap between different generations.

The most interesting aspect of this film is its modernity, a contemporary oeuvre made in 1918 that is perfectly valid today, absolute evidence that matrimony was a terrible invention…

The problems of the couple that brings the marriage to crisis include the monotony and the lack of illusion that a long period of living together produces. Of course, even Adam had problems with Eve in Paradise though he was spared the temptation of adultery. Puritanism complicates life for the female characters in the film; Herr Murdock's old-fashioned wife and Frau Juliet, the modern and independent new woman. Herr DeMille contrasts the two different ways of life and the collision between the old and the new society; however in the end both characters will take advantage of the possibilities modern society offers ( namely, divorce ) and end up happy with the man they liked most.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must try to be a modern aristocrat with firmly old-fashioned customs.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

Cecil B. DeMille recognized the themes in his previous movie, "The Whispering Chorus," a dark subject film, although profitable, wasn't quite the direction he wanted to extend. He suddenly pivoted to romantic comedies, a brand of film uncannily anticipating the new morality of The Jazz Age. His comedy of manners threw out the aging Victorian values for a fresher, yet more individualized centrist view of personal responsibilities.

In May 1918's "Old Wives For New," DeMille and his screenwriter Macpherson took up the age-old dilemma of one's loyalty to a marriage to a partner who abuses the body, in this case gaining tremendous weight, while the other is upholding a fitness regiment. The effect of such a marriage, where a spouse's sloven behavior influences the personality, is examined from all angles .

Movies during this time largely began with an introduction of all the major characters. Instead of showing an individual profile of each actor, DeMille does something novel: he films a close-up of the hands of each of the five women involved in the story. Each hand reveals their personality, e.g. The fattening wife is handling a large assortment of chocolates before selecting her pieces.

The movie public, changed by the events of the Great War and distrustful of the old ways, took delight in this new outlook on marriage. It showed an ability of extricate oneself of a life of misery without morally questioning the guilt of such actions. DeMille continued to direct romantic comedies, with the exception of a remake of his earlier "The Squaw Man' in 1918, throughout his next five years.