The Affairs of Anatol

This film is great fun, and often -- and I think intentionally, as in the 'Satan Synne' segment -- very funny: "an extravagant story that never by any chance could be taken seriously," as one contemporary reviewer approves. It's hard to sympathise with spoiled wife Vivian at first (a hard-edged performance by Gloria Swanson), but as the film goes on we start to realise that she does have a point.

This being a de Mille film, the costumes are of course fantastic; although it's actually not Swanson, the famous 'clothes-horse', who gets the best dresses here. Production values are elsewhere very high, as well, extending into beautifully-drawn title cards (in one case, with a live-action car actually driving across it!) and a lot of sacrificed furniture, while frankly, those jewelled flowers look almost worth losing a lover over...

But it's not all gloss and enjoyable silliness. There's some fine acting on display as well, not least from Wallace Reid as the well-meaning 'Tony' whose halo begins progressively to slip -- and, in a couple of telling little scenes, from Elliott Dexter as the overlooked best friend. (The little scene over the chessboard is a perfect illustration of the power of the silent screen: everything made explicit without a word.)

The picture's stage heritage shows up mainly in a few over-long title cards, where plot points are conveyed in one long 'speech'; at almost two hours in duration, it's also unbalanced in the direction of the first half, which could almost stand as a film on its own without its briefer 'sequels'. If Emilie is not to have a film of her own, there is perhaps a little too much time devoted to her.

But "The Affairs of Anatol" is well worth seeing -- not least, as an eye-opener for those like myself who associate C.B. de Mille with vast Biblical epics. This piece of froth and frivolity has more of the charm of a Harold Lloyd movie minus the slapstick; one can really see why 'handsome Wallace Reid' was a star; and there are just enough well-judged moments of genuine feeling among the spectacle and satire to make us care about the various minor players.