Don’t Change Your Husband (1919)
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Don’t Change Your Husband Movie Review
Don’t Change Your Husband is a 1919 silent romantic comedy film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gloria Swanson and Elliot Dexter. It’s such an endearing flick.
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“You stole her love from me –
but I’m going to try my damnedest to win it back!“
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With ‘Blind Husbands’ from Erich von Stroheim and many others, the adultery comedies were surely a huge deal back in 1919. This is yet another one of those, and it’s another treat. It’s sad to me how these films aren’t more popular these days when they are timeless and just as entertaining now as they were back in their release day. They are a great precursor to the screwball comedies of the thirties.
This film is about an unhappy woman. She is married, but her husband is a slouch who just sits around all day, eating and being all untidy. He forgot about their wedding anniversary so the wife is of course pissed. She gets involved with a playboy later on who is rich and fun, but when she realizes that the playboy is not for her and that her husband changed and still loves her, she of course remarries him.
So it’s not really about adultery as they divorced and then remarried, but it’s close to that. And yes, the movie is very clichéd, and of course it was very of its period in its message, but I would counter that by saying that even today this message is great. Many people who are unhappy in marriage are just spoiled and don’t know what they’re thinking so they need to be reminded how great their partner is. And here the husband also changes so that was quite a welcome development.
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Cecil B. DeMille is most famous for his epic movies, sweeping historical dramas and action-adventure spectacles set in the past. So the fact that he made this movie which is a contemporary comedy is a welcome change in pace from his other features, and he still excelled at it as the direction here is terrific and very professional.
However, there is one area here where his hand is best evident, but mostly for the wrong reasons, and those are the fantasy elements with the playboy character. I found those unnecessary and a mixed bag. They are technically strong and interesting, but also overlong and they serve as a detour for the movie’s plot in a way so I wasn’t too pleased with those scenes.
But the husband is very amusing and well played by Elliot Dexter, and of course Gloria Swanson is terrific in the main role. Her facial expressions tell us a lot and her performance is overall very confident and charming. In terms of the scenes, the opening sequence remains the best. I loved the little details when they were sitting at the table together and she was annoyed by his behavior. There we saw great humor and cinematic touches. It was so amazing that unfortunately the rest of the movie paled in comparison to it.
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Don’t Change Your Husband features abundant intertitles and most I really liked and I found them great, but the newspaper texts and such were too present. I loved the humor and the romance so it excelled as an early romantic comedy. It was also very well shot and quite memorable in many of its settings and plot points.
Don’t Change Your Husband never quite captured the humor and the charm of its opening sequence which was delightful. The film is predictable in its plot, but it still works as the message is sound, the romantic and comedic elements both worked very well and the central Gloria Swanson performance is terrific. It was a welcome contemporary departure for Cecil B. DeMille.
