Old Wives for New
About Old Wives for New
Charles Murdock, disgusted by his wife Sophy's appearance, goes hunting, meets Juliet Raeburn, and tells her he is married. Back home Sophy is jealous. Out with Tom Berkeley he meets Viola Hastings, who shoots Berkeley when she finds him with another woman, and a false report ties Juliet to the case. Charles goes abroad to shield Juliet, Sophy divorces him, and he and Juliet marry in Venice.
Cast & crew
More about Old Wives for New
Cecil B. DeMille directed and produced, with Jesse L. Lasky, from Jeanie MacPherson's adaptation of David Graham Phillips's 1908 novel. Paramount released it on 19 May 1918 after a delay over censorship. Wilfred Buckland was art director and Alpharetta Hoffman designed the costumes.
Themes
Background
Phillips's novel had already argued, in 1908, that a dead marriage should end in divorce.
Making
DeMille and MacPherson keep Phillips's murder and the Venice remarriage rather than softening the divorce.
Reviews
Edward Weitzel, in The Moving Picture World, wrote that the story states its social problem frankly and does not excuse the characters, Charles Murdock apart.
Look
Alvin Wyckoff photographed the film for DeMille.
Preservation
Complete prints are held by the Academy Film Archive and the George Eastman Museum.
Notes
- Elliott Dexter, Florence Vidor, Sylvia Ashton, Wanda Hawley, and Theodore Roberts lead the cast. Julia Faye, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Alice Terry, and William Boyd are also billed.
- The delay was aimed at local censors who might object that the film treats divorce as the way out of a broken marriage.
- Alvin Wyckoff was the cameraman.
Scenes
- Charles tells Juliet, on the hunting trip, that he already has a wife.
- Viola shoots Berkeley when she finds him with another woman.
- After the divorce, Charles and Juliet meet again in Venice and marry.
Influenced by
- David Graham Phillips's novel Old Wives for New (1908)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Old Wives for New (1918).webm)
