Old Wives for New on AllMovie

The first of Cecil B. DeMille's series of sophisticated romantic comedy-dramas, Old Wives for New was adapted from a novel by David Graham. Elliot Dexter stars as David Murdock, who after several years of marriage has grown as tired of his wife Sophy as she has of him. Casting about for new female companionship, David falls for lovely Juliet Raeburn (Florence Vidor). Upon divorcing Sophy, David is poised to marry Juliet, when she is innocently mixed up in a sensational murder case. Hoping to avoid scandal, David weds another woman named Viola (Marcia Manon), who in turn walks out on David in favor of his much-younger personal secretary. Suitably chastened, David begs Juliet to take him back, which she does. To emphasize the fact that David's first wife has let herself go to seed, director DeMille cunningly (and chauvinistically) cast pert and pretty Wanda Hawley as Sophy "before marriage," and plain and dumpy Sylvia Ashton) as Sophy "after."