OLD WIVES FOR NEW
Starring Elliott Dexter and Florence Vidor
NEW YORK TIMES
June 10, 1918
David Graham Phillips' "Old Wives for New" furnished Cecil B. DeMille material for the photoplay at the Rivoli this week, and apparently, Mr. DeMille made the most of his material. As a work of careful and realistic staging, "Old Wives for New" is an accomplishment, and many will enjoy it because of this, but the question is, was the material worth all of the effort put upon it by director and actors? The story is about a man who had preserved his youth and taste for refinement while his wife had permitted herself to become a frowzy old frump whom even the best of husbands could not love and admire. The husband meets a charming young woman and wants to separate from his wife by amicable divorce so that he can marry the other woman. But the wife maintains her rights, and the other woman insists on a divorce, so the problem cannot be solved nicely and develops all sorts of complications and difficulties before the man is finally free to marry the woman of his second choice. There is undoubtedly material for a real study of life in "Old Wives for New," but, because of Mr. Phillips or Jeanie Macpherson, who wrote he scenario, the picture play as presented is not much more than a rather highly colored melodrama.
OLD WIVES FOR NEW
Starring Elliott Dexter and Florence Vidor
PHOTOPLAY
August, 1918
It is extremely difficult to build up a pleasing romance upon
a foundation of divorce. Add to this difficulty the displeasing
fact that "Old Wives for New" contains scenes of disgusting
debauchery and you can appreciate the failure of this elaborate,
beautiful and well-acted picture. A man of fine instincts, whose
wife becomes lazy, slovenly, and horribly fat, falls in love with
a woman of his own type, and eventually everyone is happy. There
is some power displayed in the telling of the story, but it leaves
a nasty taste. The cast is remarkable - Elliott Dexter, Wanda
Hawley, Florence Vidor, Theodore Roberts, Marcia Manon, Helen
Jerome Eddy, Edna Mae Cooper, Gustave Seyffertitz, Tully Marshall.
Cecil B. DeMille, director, seemed to revel in the most immoral
episodes.
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For more information, see "Old Wives for New" as our "Feature of the Month"