Changing Husbands (1924) User Reviews

rare and amusing silent comedy

[mjneu59 · 8/10 · 9 November 2010]

Ignore the stock title and familiar mistaken identity scenario: this silent relic is actually a surprisingly fresh and very funny comedy of errors with several deft performances, led by Leatrice Joy in a dual role as a restless suburban housewife with unfulfilled dreams of a Broadway career, and also as a hopelessly untalented young actress, identical in looks, who longs for a peaceful life away from the big city (you fill in the rest of the plot). In an all too brief supporting role as the actress's bewildered gentleman friend is the great Raymond Griffith, one of the under-appreciated giants of silent screen comedy. With his Keaton-like physique and subtle changes in facial expression, Griffith adds extra life to every scene in which he appears. Screened in September 1986 at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California, along with 'The Taming of the Shrew' (circa 1911), a twelve minute silent abbreviation of Shakespeare, if that makes any sense.

Changing Clothes

[boblipton · 6/10 · 19 July 2008]

All of the major players in this movie have been much better served. Zasu Pitts has a throwaway role, Victor Varconi --- well, I must admit I can't think of anything else I might have seen Mr. Varconi in, but his role as husband is the sort that Tommy Meighan made a career playing, and he has almost no presence. Raymond Griffith isn't given much leeway, although he does a couple of amusing takes, and as for the star, Miss Leatrice Joy.... well, she does get to play two roles, but one is a selfish boor who wants to become a Great Actress and the other is a little mouse who doesn't want anything.

Really, it's largely an exercise in posing to another typical Cecil B. DeMille script in which the times, we are informed, they are a-changing. The actors do as much as they can, which renders this pleasantly watchable, but nothing to go out of your way for.

DeMille as Supervisor

[Single-Black-Male · 31 December 2003]

When Cecil B. DeMille wasn't directing his own films for Famous Players Lasky, he would visit the set of other films made by the company to supervise the director. He was particularly keen on making sure the director doesn't use the actors as puppets.