The Make-Believe Wife

The survival status of this "The Make-Believe Wife" is unknown; its storyline is fairly typical. "Motion Picture Magazine" (February 1919) reviewer Hazel Simpson Naylor called it, "A delightful farce with Billie Burke at her 'Burkiest'. The main action transpires during a house party at Lake Placid, which affords an opportunity for some unusually attractive exteriors. The story is an interesting compilation of events relative to a young couple, each engaged to other individuals, who are forced to marry in order to satisfy gossip resulting from their having been harmlessly lost in the mountains overnight.

"They attempt to get a divorce, so as to remarry the other two they still consider themselves engaged to, only to discover they really love each other. Billie Burke and David Powell (as Phyllis Ashbrook and John Manning) are a duo capable of getting the very most out of the amusing situations." Now known for "The Wizard of Oz", Ms. Burke was the film's bankable young star, ranking #19 in the magazine's 1918 readers' poll of screen favorites. Handsome Mr. Powell, who was listed at a respectable if not spectacular #188, would soon be acclaimed for his performance in "The Firing Line" (1919).

***** The Make-Believe Wife (11/17/18) John S. Robertson ~ Billie Burke, David Powell, Alfred Hickman, Ida Darling