Robert is slowly getting bored by his wife Beth, her old-fashioned clothes and her old-fashioned music tastes, and her constant carping at his manners. He makes one last try to change her again into a desirable female being by buying her a pretty daring negligee - but she decides that it doesn't suit her. The next day, when she wants to listen to a classic concert again instead of going to the Follies with him, he just goes out on his own - and 'falls prey' to young Sally, who'd been interested in him for quite a while. They spend the night together; but in the morning, the 'good husband' feels remorse, goes back to his wife and promises never to leave her alone again - but too late: she smells another woman's perfume, and throws him out of the house...
So, they get divorced, and Robert marries Sally - BUT as the inter-title warns us: 'wives will be wives'... So, after a while, Robert gets tired of Sally too - and meets Beth again on a holiday, who in the meanwhile has changed completely: she wears the most extravagant dresses, enjoys herself, has got a lot of admirers... But secretly, she's still in love with HIM - but alas, this time it's Robert who must give her a moral lesson: as she herself had taught him, a man can only be faithful to one woman at a time. Now, in which way will fate intervene this time??
Well - another of Cecil B. De Mille's lessons in morales and decency and destiny: don't break out of your social 'caste' ("Male and Female"), don't change your husband, don't change your wife... OK, all this was around 1920 - but that was JUST the year in which the two greatest Hollywood stars of the time showed to the public that it IS possible - and in no way immoral - to break out of an unhappy marriage to be free to marry and to be happy with the one you love: Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford... So, even for early 20s' standards (and even WITHOUT any Production Code then), Mr. De Mille's ideas were a little bit outdated - although they still were an enormous box-office success; probably most of all due to the great performances of Thomas Meighan, Gloria Swanson and Bebe Daniels.
So, they get divorced, and Robert marries Sally - BUT as the inter-title warns us: 'wives will be wives'... So, after a while, Robert gets tired of Sally too - and meets Beth again on a holiday, who in the meanwhile has changed completely: she wears the most extravagant dresses, enjoys herself, has got a lot of admirers... But secretly, she's still in love with HIM - but alas, this time it's Robert who must give her a moral lesson: as she herself had taught him, a man can only be faithful to one woman at a time. Now, in which way will fate intervene this time??
Well - another of Cecil B. De Mille's lessons in morales and decency and destiny: don't break out of your social 'caste' ("Male and Female"), don't change your husband, don't change your wife... OK, all this was around 1920 - but that was JUST the year in which the two greatest Hollywood stars of the time showed to the public that it IS possible - and in no way immoral - to break out of an unhappy marriage to be free to marry and to be happy with the one you love: Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford... So, even for early 20s' standards (and even WITHOUT any Production Code then), Mr. De Mille's ideas were a little bit outdated - although they still were an enormous box-office success; probably most of all due to the great performances of Thomas Meighan, Gloria Swanson and Bebe Daniels.