DON'T CHANGE YOUR HUSBAND
starring Gloria Swanson
MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE
May 1919
"Don't Change Your Husband" is the latest Cecil B. De Mille attraction and one of those seldom found but always appreciated productions, a photoplay that points a moral but doesn't bore. The story is an ungilded cross-section of life as it is lived. James Porter is a young business man who has neglected exterior ornamentation - in other words, he has become careless, frowsy, down at the heel. He works hard all day making millions; when he comes home, he wears slippers, eats onions, goes collarless. His wife, Leila, on the other hand, is a pagan little creature, who loves luxuries, devotion, compliments. Just when husband, adding insult to injury, totally forgets their wedding anniversary, the other man appears. He is a slick slinger of soft-spun phrases, an immaculate dresser. The contrast is too much for Leila; she tells her husband she wants a divorce and in times marries the other man. Appearances, they say, are deceitful, and Leila finds herself out of the frying-pan into the fire. Hubby No. 2 has as many annoying habits as hubby No. 1. Not only that, but he squanders Leila's money on silly light o' loves. A chance meeting with hubby No. 1, who, having learnt his lesson, is well groomed and fascinating, makes Leila pause to reflect. Another trip to Reno is followed by a reunion with hubby No. 1. This tale is picturized in perfect tempo by Elliott Dexter, Gloria Swanson and Lew Cody. In fact, we do not hesitate to proclaim Gloria Swanson one of the distinct acquisitions of the silent play, not only pictorially, but dramatically. As for Elliott Dexter, we have already noted him as one of the most promising actors on the screen today.