DON’T CHANGE YOUR HUSBAND/THE GOLDEN CHANCE is the first of at least three double bill DVDs featuring early films by Cecil B. DeMille to be released by David Shepard of Film Preservation Associates and what an inspired choice it is. It provides a rare opportunity to see one of the major filmmakers of Old Hollywood develop and adapt his style to the changing tastes of the public of the time which in turn were influenced by the films that were being made.
THE GOLDEN CHANCE dates from 1915 and is in the mold of DeMille’s earlier hard hitting melodrama THE CHEAT. This reworking of the Cinderella story in which an abused wife (Cleo Ridgely) is given the opportunity to be someone else in order to deceive a rich investor (Wallace Reid) is loaded with pungent social commentary as were many films from that era of filmmaking. Movies could entertain and make observations of contemporary society at the same time and the great early filmmakers in America like Porter, Griffith, Lois Weber and DeMille did just that. Although the film has the expected “happy ending” it nevertheless leaves a bitter taste in the mouth and remains food for thought 90 years later.
By the time of DON’T CHANGE YOUR HUSBAND in 1919 (his first film with Gloria Swanson) DeMille saw the handwriting on the wall and began to adapt his films to the post-WWI style of more entertainment, less commentary as the emergence of the major studios forever turned Hollywood into a big business enterprise where the bottom line became the most important issue although they were less blatant than today’s studios about cost over content. Swanson is simply delightful, so fresh and spontaneous, as the wife who changes husbands only to discover that she was better off the first time around. However if she hadn’t done that then he wouldn’t have made the necessary improvements.
The Jazz Age was just ahead and the moral climate was changing. Although dealing with divorce in a playful manner the film dared to show that it was possible (as DeMille had earlier in OLD WIVES FOR NEW which will be coming out soon on DVD) and that notion was still quite shocking in 1919. Elliot Dexter as the husband who transforms himself after realizing what he’s lost is totally believable and sympathetic while Lew Cody is the perfect shallow cad whose charm is only on the surface as Gloria eventually discovers. It’s a rare opportunity to see Cody as very few of his films have survived. He would eventually marry Mabel Normand in the late 1920’s. The music provided by Rodney Sauer and the Mont Alto Orchestra is first rate and complements both films beautifully. An absolute must for fans of silent movies and a good opportunity to study early DeMille before he became the purveyor of historical extravaganzas.
The Capsule Critic 