General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Why Change Your Wife?

Why Change Your Wife? is a 1920 American silent comedy directed by Cecil B. DeMille, in which a prim, fastidious wife loses her husband to a livelier woman, makes herself over, and wins him back. It was produced by Famous Players-Lasky Corporation and distributed by Paramount Pictures as a Paramount-Artcraft Special, and it closed the trilogy of marital comedies DeMille made for the studio, following Old Wives for New (1918) and Don't Change Your Husband (1919).¹^•²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Release	National release 2 May 1920, after pre-release showings across the country; produced 2 September to 22 October 1919¹
Director and producer	Cecil B. DeMille, presented by Jesse L. Lasky²
Writers	Scenario by Olga Printzlau and Sada Cowan, from a screen story by William C. de Mille, DeMille's brother²^•⁴
Principal cast	Thomas Meighan as Robert Gordon, Gloria Swanson as his wife Beth, Bebe Daniels as Sally Clark²
Format	Silent, black and white with color-tinted sequences; AFI lists 90 minutes, 7,613 feet, 8 reels¹
Finances	Cost $129,349.31 and grossed $1,016,245.87, excluding later income from reissues, television syndication, and home entertainment⁵
Survival	A 35mm positive print exists in the George Eastman Museum film archive; the film is in the public domain in the USA²

Spoilers

Plot

After ten years of marriage, Beth and Robert Gordon are drifting apart: Beth has highbrow tastes while her husband prefers simpler pleasures. Robert becomes romantically involved with Sally Clark, and when Beth finds out she demands a divorce. Robert marries Sally, and at a fashionable summer resort he meets Beth again.¹ The husband soon tires of his superficial new wife, while his once-stodgy ex acquires a glamorous new look.⁶ In DeMille's own summary, the wife is "exceedingly prim and proper," "whose virtues are her only vices," and whose efforts to impose her tastes on her husband lose him, until she learns that being virtuous does not mean being dowdy.⁵ One scholar of the period's domestic dramas notes that Robert returns to Beth not out of love or devotion but because she has mended her nagging ways, a reading that can make the film seem to reinforce female subservience and interchangeability.⁷

Production

The picture was never intended to be a Cecil B. DeMille production. William deMille created the story and was expected to direct it as well, but events instead caused Cecil to assume control of the project.⁴ Jesse Lasky, vice president of Famous Players-Lasky, encouraged Cecil to produce it rather than William, writing that it was "really better that you produce this picture than William [credited with the story] on account of your being so strongly identified with 'Don't Change Your Husband.'"⁸

DeMille's regular collaborators filled the key technical posts: Alvin Wyckoff photographed, Wilfred Buckland was art director, Anne Bauchens edited, and Clare West and Mitchell Leisen designed the costumes.² Bauchens edited DeMille's films from Carmen (1915) through The Ten Commandments (1959), his last film, and DeMille wrote that every contract contained a clause requiring her as his editor.⁹ The two screenwriters were established professionals: Sada Cowan became one of DeMille's highest paid writers, and Olga Printzlau signed a five-year contract with Famous Players-Lasky in 1920 but broke it, preferring freelance work.⁹

The film contained scenes in which color was added by a patented process owned by Famous Players-Lasky, using chemical dyes and specially planned photography; DeMille said the process's chief value was in heightening artistic lighting effects.¹

The marriage-film cycle

Why Change Your Wife? belongs to the cycle of sophisticated "marriage films" DeMille directed for Famous Players-Lasky, together with Old Wives for New, Don't Change Your Husband, and For Better, For Worse, all released in 1918–1920.³ Lasky encouraged "modern stuff with plenty of clothes, rich sets, and action," and had screenwriter Jeanie Macpherson portray women "in the sort of role that the feminists in the country are now interested in ... the kind of girl that dominates ... who jumps in and does a man's work."⁹ After Old Wives for New succeeded, titles hinting at marital problems, such as Rich Men's Wives, Too Much Wife, and His Forgotten Wife, appeared on marquee signs, and DeMille set an industry trend.⁸

Reception and finances

The trade press treated the film as a commercial property with a message. Variety wrote on April 30, 1920 that it "isn't a great feature, but it's a good market product," adding that DeMille had "preach[ed] a good everyday sermon in story form."⁵ Wid's Daily, reviewing the national release of May 2, 1920, called it a "gorgeous production dealing with trifles of married life and 'preaching' against divorce," praised the photography and lighting, and noted that Swanson and Daniels "show a million dollars worth of clothes."¹⁰ Regional exhibitors were equally positive; the owner of the Garfield Theatre in Chicago called it "a perfect picture, lavishly staged" that he could "faithfully recommend" to patrons.⁵

The financial figures differ by source. The DeMille estate's own site gives a production cost of $129,349.31 against a gross of $1,016,245.87, excluding income from reissues, television syndication, and home entertainment.⁵ The Silent Era film list gives a production cost of $74,000.² Either way the film returned several times its cost, and Wid's Daily predicted it would "go big before all audiences," with "an immense public" like Don't Change Your Husband before it.¹⁰

Gloria Swanson and later history

By the time she appeared in the film, Gloria Swanson was one of the biggest stars in the world, thanks largely to her three previous films with DeMille. Her background in Sennett slapstick served her well, and the box office success of the DeMille films gave her contract leverage; when her Paramount contract came up for renewal in 1926 she turned it down to join United Artists, where she could produce her own films.³^•⁹

A 35mm nitrate print survives at the George Eastman Museum, which scheduled it for the Nitrate Picture Show in June 2026, running 101 minutes at 19 frames per second in a tinted print.²^•³ The film is also freely available on streaming services.⁶

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026