WHY CHANGE YOUR WIFE?
starring Gloria Swanson, Thomas Meighan and Bebe Daniels
MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE
July, 1920
Cecil B. De Mille might be called the apostle of domesticity. Surely no married couple would come to grief who heeded his lessons. De Mille has an uncanny understanding of man and woman and he weaves this sex knowledge into silken photoplays that not only appeal optically but remain in the mind later on. In "Why Change Your Wife?" he preaches a sermon to young wives who do not try to keep themselves youthful and appealing to their husbands. Once, I might have considered the fight between wife number one and wife number two exaggerated. . . but women are queer animals after all and I think perhaps De Mille understands them better than I do. Gloria Swanson is certainly his finest bit of clay. She reflects his messages better than any mirror. Bebe Daniels is satisfactory but at a disadvantage compared to the glorious Gloria. Gloria Swanson is as refined and as rich as the almost improcurable attar of roses. Tom Meighan is more handsome than ever as the man who discovers that wives will be wives.
Video source: Grapevine, Critic's Choice