Old Wives for New

This Demille social drama from 1918 is an early example of one of his themes, a social drama of how the upper classes live. It lacks the opulent decadence of his Gloria Swanson period but is more concerned with telling the story of how Elliott Dexter and Florence Vidor come to fall in love, run into difficulties -- he is married to Sylvia Ashton, who has let herself get fat and unappealing -- and eventually get together. The story is rather complicated and, as usual Teddy Roberts gets to steal the show, particularly in his death scene. Alvin Wyckoff is Demille's cameraman in this one and he comes up with some beautiful compositions that are very subtle -- despite a frame that is invariably filled with detail, you look where Demille wants you to. But the costume design is, alas, overly ornate, distracting and ridiculous, and the leads can't really hold the screen in a convincing fashion.

Demille would do this sort of movie much better and in short order, stripping the story line to essentials and adding in lions, tigers and lots of half-dressed women. Don't get me wrong: I'm pleased to see this early Demille available again, and it fills in an important gap in his filmography, but it is certainly not one of his best works. See it if you have a yen, but don't expect miracles.