Idle Wives
(1916)
Drama | September 1916
Directors:
Lois Weber, Phillips SmalleyWriters:
Lois Weber, Phillips SmalleyCinematographer:
Allen SeiglerProduction Company:
Universal Film Mfg Co.The 2 September 1916 Motion Picture News announced that "the Smalleys" were "progressing rapidly" at Universal City, CA. on Idle Wives. The 16 September 1916 Motography reported that the film would introduce Roy Fernandez, "winner of the Universal 'handsome man' contest," but his participation in the film is undetermined.
Onscreen credits read "Written and Produced by Lois Weber and Phillis Smalley"; as was customary in this era, the word "producer" was used for what we now call "director." Smalley and Weber were husband and wife at the time.
According to Variety, the film maintained the connection between the theater patrons and the movie on the screen with "frequent cut-ins showing the various people witnessing its projection and the effect the different situations in the film have upon them."
A full-page Universal advertisement for Idle Wives in the 28 October 1916 Moving Picture World announced that it was selling State Rights. A new distributer, the Supreme Feature Film Co., bought rights to California, Arizona, and Nevada, the 9 December 1916 Motion Picture News noted. Universal's ad boasted that the film had a successful premiere run at the Maxine Elliott Theatre on West Thirty-ninth Street in New York City.
The plot contained in the copyright descriptions differs significantly from the trade review synopses, in that the characters are not players in a movie-within-a-movie but are connected in a more conventional way. The copyright plot may have been taken from the James Oppenheim novel. In the film, Anne Wall (Lois Weber), John Wall (Phillips Smalley), Molly (Mary MacLaren), Richard (Edward Hearn), Wall's Mother (Countess Du Cello), ...
The 2 September 1916 Motion Picture News announced that "the Smalleys" were "progressing rapidly" at Universal City, CA. on Idle Wives. The 16 September 1916 Motography reported that the film would introduce Roy Fernandez, "winner of the Universal 'handsome man' contest," but his participation in the film is undetermined.
Onscreen credits read "Written and Produced by Lois Weber and Phillis Smalley"; as was customary in this era, the word "producer" was used for what we now call "director." Smalley and Weber were husband and wife at the time.
According to Variety, the film maintained the connection between the theater patrons and the movie on the screen with "frequent cut-ins showing the various people witnessing its projection and the effect the different situations in the film have upon them."
A full-page Universal advertisement for Idle Wives in the 28 October 1916 Moving Picture World announced that it was selling State Rights. A new distributer, the Supreme Feature Film Co., bought rights to California, Arizona, and Nevada, the 9 December 1916 Motion Picture News noted. Universal's ad boasted that the film had a successful premiere run at the Maxine Elliott Theatre on West Thirty-ninth Street in New York City.
The plot contained in the copyright descriptions differs significantly from the trade review synopses, in that the characters are not players in a movie-within-a-movie but are connected in a more conventional way. The copyright plot may have been taken from the James Oppenheim novel. In the film, Anne Wall (Lois Weber), John Wall (Phillips Smalley), Molly (Mary MacLaren), Richard (Edward Hearn), Wall's Mother (Countess Du Cello), Alberta Davies (Pauline Aster), and Molly's mother (Cecilia Matthews) appear only in the movie-within-a-movie, "Life's Mirror."
An in-joke shows letters on the marquee at the movie theater where various characters interact advertising the imaginary film "Life's Mirror" by Lois Weber as the feature attraction. A poster outside the theater also shows Phillips Smalley in "Life's Mirror." Another poster for "Life's Mirror" comments on the dramatic elements of Idle Wives and contains the following text: "WORKING GIRLS! Are you thinking you would be happier away from home restraint? HUSBANDS & WIVES! Are you drifting apart? YOUNG MEN! Are you useful citizens or are you a menace to society? WORKING MEN & WOMEN! Is your home today the home you dreamed it would be?" Another poster visible at the theater is for the real comedy short Housekeeping (Vim, 1916), starring Harry Myers and Rosemary Theby.
Pauline Astor was also billed as Gertrude Astor.
According to the Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database, only one reel of this film is extant.
Mr. Jamison rendezvous with his new sweetheart and takes her to the movies, secretly followed by his neglected wife. Mary Wells, disobeying her parents, meets her boyfriend, “Tough” Burns, at the same theater. The Smith family—a working man, his wife and children from the tenements, all obsessed with the sordidness of their lives—also attend the movie. As they all watch a film called Life's Mirror, they see their own lives turned into dramas, complete with possible "final curtains." In one case, Mary, who refuses to listen to her parents, sees her motion picture surrogate give birth to an illegitimate child after she is abandoned by her boyfriend. In the film, the screen character Anne Wall, tired of the phoniness of husband John's wealthy family and friends, deserts him and their children to return to the slums and do charity work for the needy. After the movie, Jamison, sadder but wiser, leaves his sweetheart and returns home with his wife; Mary decides to apologize to her mother; the Smiths realize they must look to the future; and “Tough” Burns promises to lead a less profligate ...
Mr. Jamison rendezvous with his new sweetheart and takes her to the movies, secretly followed by his neglected wife. Mary Wells, disobeying her parents, meets her boyfriend, “Tough” Burns, at the same theater. The Smith family—a working man, his wife and children from the tenements, all obsessed with the sordidness of their lives—also attend the movie. As they all watch a film called Life's Mirror, they see their own lives turned into dramas, complete with possible "final curtains." In one case, Mary, who refuses to listen to her parents, sees her motion picture surrogate give birth to an illegitimate child after she is abandoned by her boyfriend. In the film, the screen character Anne Wall, tired of the phoniness of husband John's wealthy family and friends, deserts him and their children to return to the slums and do charity work for the needy. After the movie, Jamison, sadder but wiser, leaves his sweetheart and returns home with his wife; Mary decides to apologize to her mother; the Smiths realize they must look to the future; and “Tough” Burns promises to lead a less profligate life.
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