Idle Wives
About Idle Wives
A shopgirl, a family spending past its means, and an unfaithful husband go to the movies. The picture on the bill is Life's Mirror, advertised as by Lois Weber. The shopgirl watches her screen double become pregnant. The family watches another household drown in bills. The husband watches his wife walk out. After the show the shopgirl apologizes to her parents, the family decides to live on what it has, and the husband leaves his mistress.
Cast & crew
More about Idle Wives
Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley directed and wrote the seven-reel feature for Universal. It was released on 15 September 1916. Weber plays Anne and Smalley plays John Wall. Mary MacLaren is Molly, Edward Hearn is Richard, and the rest of the company includes Seymour Hastings, Ben F. Wilson, Maude George, and Neva Gerber. Inside the story, Life's Mirror is billed as Weber's own film.
Themes
Making
Weber and Smalley play a couple on screen while co-directing. Only Weber is given as the author of the film-within-the-film.
Preservation
Reels 1 and 2 survive, about 23 minutes of a seven-reel film. The Library of Congress holds the fragment. A reel also turned up at the New Zealand Film Archive.
Notes
- The inner film is titled Life's Mirror and is advertised at the theater in the story as the work of Lois Weber.
- A reel was found at the New Zealand Film Archive after the feature had been treated as lost.
- The Kino Lorber disc runs the surviving fragment at 23 minutes and 30 seconds.
Scenes
- The theater lobby advertises Life's Mirror as a Lois Weber picture.
- Each spectator watches a double make the choice they have been avoiding.
Also available
- Internet Archive (idle-wives-1916)
- Kino Lorber Blu-ray, Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers (2018)
