Checked this rare Cecil B. DeMille silent at my local library intrigued by the premise of seeing a Gloria Swanson silent movie in its entirety for the first time. Turns out she's sort of a supporting character since Anatol is actually a man played by Wallace Reid. He's Anatol, a.k.a. Tony, Spencer whose marriage to Vivian (Swanson) is constantly tested by his involvement in three other women: Emile Dixon (Wanda Hawley), Annie Elliott (Agnes Ayres), and Satan Synne (Bebe Daniels). Emile is an old school friend of Tony's who's now in the company of middle aged rich man Gordon Bronson (Theodore Roberts). Annie is the wife of country pastor Abner (Monte Blue) whose church money she unknowingly stole to buy a dress. Ms. Synne is a nightclub entertainer whose World War I veteran husband is enduring a long hospital stay. About Emile: Tony's just wasting his time trying to get her away from pearls which she loves and is too possessive with her on that front especially since he won't do the same about his wife's picture. And his breaking the furniture that HE bought! Tsk, tsk. That segment's too long anyway, though there's some amusement with Raymond Hatton as a violin teacher. About Annie: I can't believe his kissing her after saving her from a drowning which conveniently happens as his wife shows up with a doctor. And it's obviously a pre-Code movie when Annie gets to keep the stolen money with her husband none the wiser! Short enough in my book. About Satan: This was the most touching segment in the movie with Tony intending to really cheat on his wife (not completely realizing vice versa on Vivian's part) and then finding out the truth about Ms. Synne's husband's illness as he then decides to let her keep the $3000 as charity. Also, Polly Moran is briefly amusing as an orchestra leader. Also liked Elliot Dexter as Max Runyon, friend of the Spencers and Theodore Kosloff as Nazzer Singh, a hypnotist who temporarily casts Vivian under a spell. Not a great movie but it certainly has its merits and DeMille provides some great close-ups in the final segment with some wonderful color tints that took my breath away a little. How "happy" the ending is depends on one's view of how trusting the couple really is but it was satisfactory to my tastes. Worth at least a look for anyone interested in old movies. P.S. Ms. Swanson was born in the same town I was: Chicago, Ill. And the writer of the original story, Arthur Schnitzler, would also pen "Traumnovelle" which would be the source of Stanley Kubrick's final work, Eyes Wide Shut.

"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..........

Drawn to this by the irresistable and rare chance of seeing Wallace Reid and Gloria Swanson working together on a film, I had heard about it through reference books (and also about Swanson's recollections of the film not being happy due to feeling uncomfortable with Reid at the time), and expected exactly what I got - a fun piece with some nice touches (Gloria's playful mood before she feels slighted by Wanda Hawley's flapper girl; Reid trashing Hawley's apartment when he realises she did not have pure intentions towards him after all; Agnes Ayres and Reid sharing a kiss in the woods while Gloria has gone to fetch a doctor to attend to Ayres, 'half-drowned' when she left; and best of all, Bebe Daniels as the absurdly named Satan Synne who is really a domesticated pussy cat chasing young men for cash to help her sick husband). The Affairs ... also benefits from having a lovely series of colour tints throughout. A little overlong perhaps (and too much focus on Hawley at the expense of the other girls encountered by Tony) but another fascinating early piece from De Mille. Sad to think that Wallace Reid would be dead by early '23. The movies' loss.

THE AFFAIRS OF ANATOL, which are really only his attempts to help unhappy or wayward women, has left his own marriage in a very precarious predicament.During the 1920's, director Cecil B. DeMille became famous for two types of film - the lavish historical spectacle & the elaborate, somewhat salacious, social comedy. ANATOL is an example of the latter. While its plot is insignificant (and faintly ludicrous), it is still quite enjoyable to watch, and can boast of fine performances & superior production values.In the title role, Wallace Reid acquits himself very well as the hapless rich chump whose noble deeds always seem to backfire. Good-natured & affable, he is only too susceptible to damsels in distress. But even this worm can turn, and his violent scenes - laying waste the apartment of a mendacious maiden, crashing into his wife's locked boudoir - show the energy & passion of which this nearly forgotten star was capable.Gloria Swanson, as Reid's lively spouse; Wanda Hawley as a millionaire's courtesan; Agnes Ayres as a duplicitous country wife; and diabolic Bebe Daniels as the ultimate vamp, all add greatly to the enjoyment of the proceedings, slinking about in fashions (all except Miss Ayres) only crazy movie folk of the 1920's could ever truly get by with.Movie mavens will have no trouble spotting the irrepressible Polly Moran as a zany nightclub orchestra leader.A Wallace Reid film is a rather rare & wonderful thing now, as most of them seem to have vanished long ago. Reid, immensely popular in his day, was the epitome of the American Hero. Tragically, his story became a living nightmare. Injuries received while on location in Oregon in 1919 left him seemingly unable to complete his role. The Paramount Studio doctor was dispatched to plug him full of morphine and put him back in front of the cameras. It worked, but already weakened by alcoholism, Reid now became a helpless morphine addict. His problem was an open secret in Hollywood, but instead of the real help he desperately needed, he was given more of the deadly drug. His box office returns were considered too valuable, and the Studio pushed him through an insufferable number of films - 7 in 1921, 8 in 1922. After ANATOL, in which it was becoming obvious that his good looks were beginning to decay, Reid made 11 more films in increasing agony. His death on January 18, 1923, was officially attributed to the influenza which finally overcame the body debilitated by alcohol & drug addiction. Wallace Reid was only 31 years old.