L'Échange

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.

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.

Swanson changes her style dramatically in the middle of the film (after the divorce), and she becomes really gorgeous. It seems like this film was made just to show her. Comparing with her, Daniels (and other characters) is not so impressive. The film itself has a simple story and maybe it is not so appealing to everyone but still interesting to see.

Why Change Your Wife? was a movie about a couple undergoing some problems. Robert keeps trying to please his nagging wife, Beth. He tries to please her without success. He tries several things to please her and she continuously turns it down, refusing to change for him. This leads Robert to go out with another women who works in a negligee shop. Eventually she gets a little saucy to spruce herself up and become more appealing in hopes to win Robert back. I loved the romantic drama and the passion behind this silent film. Though it would have been better with sound, I found it very similar to some of the popular movies out today. It was refreshing to see the humor and romantic scandals that were around back in 1920 and how they haven't differed much from the scandals of today. It was a delight to watch.

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.