Idle Wives
Idle Wives is a 1916 American silent drama film co-directed by Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley.[1] The film was released by Universal Film Manufacturing Company. Surviving reels of the film are preserved at the Library of Congress. The film was released on DVD/Blu-ray in 2018.[2]
| Idle Wives | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Lois Weber Phillips Smalley |
| Written by | Lois Weber |
| Starring | Lois Weber Phillips Smalley Mary MacLaren Maude George |
| Cinematography | Allen G. Siegler |
| Distributed by | Universal Film Manufacturing Company |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7 reels |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
Plot
Characters go to the movies to watch Life's Mirror, a film where they see their own lives turned into dramas. A shop girl dating a young man against her parents' wishes watches her onscreen counterpart become pregnant; an impoverished family watches as a family onscreen lives beyond their means; and an unfaithful husband watches as his onscreen wife leaves him and returns to social work. After the film characters have learned their lessons: the shop girl apologizes to her parents; the family decides to live within its means; and the wealthy man leaves his mistress and returns to his wife.
Cast
- Lois Weber as Anne
- Phillips Smalley as John Wall
- Mary MacLaren as Molly
- Edwin Hearn as Richard
- Seymour Hastings as Billy Shane
- Countess Du Cello as Wall's Mother
- Pauline Aster as Alberta
- Cecilia Matthews as Molly's Mother
- Ben F. Wilson as Mr. Jamison
- Maude George as Mrs. Jamison
- Neva Gerber as Mary Wells
- Charles Perley as Tough Burns
Further reading
- Slide, Anthony (1996). Lois Weber: The Director Who Lost Her Way in History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 37. ISBN 0313299455.
- Stamp, Shelley (2015). Lois Weber in Early Hollywood. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. pp. 105–106. ISBN 978-0520284463.
- Routt, Bill (2001). Lois Weber, or the exigency of writing.
External links
- Idle Wives on National Film Preservation Foundation cite with a brief clip and film notes by film historian Shelley Stamp
- Idle Wives entry in American Film Institute catalog
- Idle Wives at IMDb
- Synopsis at AllMovie