Don't Change Your Husband (1919)

Genres - Comedy  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Janiss Garza

This was Gloria Swanson's first film for director Cecil B. DeMille and it went a long way in establishing her as a star. Considered deliciously racy in its day, Don't Change Your Husband is an amusing battle between the sexes that takes place in the sumptuous upper-class society of the post-WWI era. The romantic Leila Porter (Gloria Swanson) is frustrated by her neglectful husband, James (Elliot Dexter). James is a glue magnate who is more concerned with making money than he is about keeping Leila happy. So she divorces him and marries the flashy, stylish Schuyler Van Sutphen (Lew Cody). It doesn't take long before Leila discovers that Sutphen is a gambling, two-timing rat, and she returns to the more prosaic Porter, who -- luckily for Leila -- is happy to have her back. This is a classic example of DeMille's drawing-room side, and the combination of humor, luscious sets and costumes, and brilliant casting (especially of Swanson and Cody), made this film a solid winner.

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Keywords

battle-of-the-sexes, divorce, first-love, gambling, husband, neglect, romance