"The Affairs of Anatole" is another marriage infidelity film from Producer/Director Cecil B. De Mille. Its a white washed story of a socialite's affairs with three women told in three separate stories.
Wealthy socialite Anatole DeWitt Spencer...now there's a moniker (Wallace Reid) has been married to his wife Vivian (Gloria Swanson) for a mere ten weeks and feels that the "honey" is gone from the honeymoon and grows restless.
While night clubbing with Vivian and his close friend Max Runyon (Elliott Dexter) he sees an old school sweetheart, Emilie Dixon (Wanda Hawley) in the company of a rich old playboy, Gordon Bronson (Theodore Roberts). Feeling that he needs to "save her soul", he tells Vivian that he must save Emilie from herself. Anatole sets her up in an apartment and tries to turn her into a socialite...a sort of "My Fair Lady" scenario. He tries to get her to throw away the jewelry that Bronson had given her, but she hides the jewels from him. Once a gold digger, always a gold digger, Emilie goes back to Bronson and ..............
Anatole goes back to Vivian and the two decide on a second honeymoon. A farmer's wife, Annie Elliot (Agnes Ayres) has just stolen church funds from her husband Abner (Monte Blue) that he had been keeping for the local church. As luck would have it, the despondent Annie is just jumping from a bridge in a suicide attempt as Anatole and Vivian's boat is rowing under the bridge. Anatole saves the woman and brings her ashore to administer first aid. While Vivan goes for help, Annie sees her chance to redeem herself by stealing Anatole's fat wallet that has fallen conveniently to the ground. Playing up to him, she steals the wallet and.............
Next Anatole meets "vamp" Satan Synne...there's another name (Bebe Daniels) who is a thinly disguised prostitute whom Anatole decides to save. Satan in reality is Mary Deacon who is living the life to get money to finance her war veteran husband's many operations. Complete with an octopus' tentacled cloak, she puts her coils around Anatole to obtain the $3,000 required for her husband's latest operation and.....................
Repentant, Anatole returns to Vivian yet again only to find that she is on an "all nighter" with his best friend Max and...................
Even though De Mille tries to paint each of these ladies as pure of heart, there's no doubt what is REALLY going on. The fact that Vivian keeps taking Anatole back after each affair is a little hard to believe. But hey, this was 1921.
Wallace Reid was now a major star as was the diminutive Gloria Swanson. Reid, a life long alcoholic, was now addicted to morphine resulting from an accident in 1919. This combination proved lethal and Reid died prematurely at the age of 31 in 1923. Bebe Daniels was just coming into her own as a star after years in Harold Lloyd comedies. Agnes Ayres received a measure of immortality, as the girl carried off by Rudolph Valentino in "The Shiek" (1921).
Others in the cast include Theodore Kosloff as an Indian mystic, Raymond Hatton as a music teacher, Polly Moran as an orchestra leader and William (don't call me Hoppy) Boyd as a party guest at the apartment of Emilie.
Interesting but..........
Wealthy socialite Anatole DeWitt Spencer...now there's a moniker (Wallace Reid) has been married to his wife Vivian (Gloria Swanson) for a mere ten weeks and feels that the "honey" is gone from the honeymoon and grows restless.
While night clubbing with Vivian and his close friend Max Runyon (Elliott Dexter) he sees an old school sweetheart, Emilie Dixon (Wanda Hawley) in the company of a rich old playboy, Gordon Bronson (Theodore Roberts). Feeling that he needs to "save her soul", he tells Vivian that he must save Emilie from herself. Anatole sets her up in an apartment and tries to turn her into a socialite...a sort of "My Fair Lady" scenario. He tries to get her to throw away the jewelry that Bronson had given her, but she hides the jewels from him. Once a gold digger, always a gold digger, Emilie goes back to Bronson and ..............
Anatole goes back to Vivian and the two decide on a second honeymoon. A farmer's wife, Annie Elliot (Agnes Ayres) has just stolen church funds from her husband Abner (Monte Blue) that he had been keeping for the local church. As luck would have it, the despondent Annie is just jumping from a bridge in a suicide attempt as Anatole and Vivian's boat is rowing under the bridge. Anatole saves the woman and brings her ashore to administer first aid. While Vivan goes for help, Annie sees her chance to redeem herself by stealing Anatole's fat wallet that has fallen conveniently to the ground. Playing up to him, she steals the wallet and.............
Next Anatole meets "vamp" Satan Synne...there's another name (Bebe Daniels) who is a thinly disguised prostitute whom Anatole decides to save. Satan in reality is Mary Deacon who is living the life to get money to finance her war veteran husband's many operations. Complete with an octopus' tentacled cloak, she puts her coils around Anatole to obtain the $3,000 required for her husband's latest operation and.....................
Repentant, Anatole returns to Vivian yet again only to find that she is on an "all nighter" with his best friend Max and...................
Even though De Mille tries to paint each of these ladies as pure of heart, there's no doubt what is REALLY going on. The fact that Vivian keeps taking Anatole back after each affair is a little hard to believe. But hey, this was 1921.
Wallace Reid was now a major star as was the diminutive Gloria Swanson. Reid, a life long alcoholic, was now addicted to morphine resulting from an accident in 1919. This combination proved lethal and Reid died prematurely at the age of 31 in 1923. Bebe Daniels was just coming into her own as a star after years in Harold Lloyd comedies. Agnes Ayres received a measure of immortality, as the girl carried off by Rudolph Valentino in "The Shiek" (1921).
Others in the cast include Theodore Kosloff as an Indian mystic, Raymond Hatton as a music teacher, Polly Moran as an orchestra leader and William (don't call me Hoppy) Boyd as a party guest at the apartment of Emilie.
Interesting but..........