Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

jacobs-greenwood Produced (and directed) by Cecil B. DeMille, and written by Jeanie Macpherson from Arthur Schnitzler's play, this silent comedy-drama features Wallace Reid in the title role; Gloria Swanson plays his wife Vivian Spencer.The film includes several experiments in color, some scenes are tinted and (at least) two appear to have been shot in 2-strip Technicolor. Monte Blue and Bebe Daniels are among those who also appear in the cast; reportedly, William Boyd and Polly Moran also appear, uncredited.Though only recently married, Anatol (Reid) is the type of man who feels compelled to save young women from their poor choices (or fate). Naturally, this displeases his new bride Vivian (Swanson), though she passes the time with her husband's friend Max Runyon (Elliott Dexter), who eventually wants more from the relationship. While out to dinner one evening with Max and his wife, Anatol spots an old grammar school sweetheart, Emilie Dixon (Wanda Hawley), with her 'sugar daddy', Gordon Bronson (Theodore Roberts).After witnessing Emilie's date spiking her drink, Anatol decides to act. He 'rescues' her from him but Bronson laughs and says he'll be ready to 'pick up the pieces' later. When Anatol brings Emilie back to their table, he's greeted coldly by his wife, who asks Max to take her home. Soon, Anatol has set-up Emilie with an apartment and educational opportunities (like learning to play the violin). Though his intentions are pure and honorable, she's clearly taking advantage of him. When Anatol finally recognizes this, he tells Emilie that she must toss the jewelry she'd received from Bronson off a bridge, which she only pretends to do.After supposedly cutting her ties to her past, Emilie wants more from Anatol, but he refuses to leave Vivian and leaves. Upon returning later, he discovers Emilie partying with Bronson, and that she had never really thrown away her booty. Anatol is so furious that he fulfills Bronson's earlier remark by breaking and destroying everything he'd bought for Emilie within the apartment (e.g. so that Bronson can pick up the pieces).Anatol returns to Vivian and pleads (essentially) 'if ever you see me trying to save another woman, please save me by keeping me from doing so'; she takes him back. Later, at a party, a Hindu hypnotist named Nazzer Singh (Theodore Kosloff) is able to compel Vivian to remove her shoes and stockings; he's made her think that she's about to wade into a stream. This prompts Anatol to interrupt the trance and propose to Vivian that they should abandon their current lifestyle, that returning to a simpler life together is what their marriage needs.Meanwhile, out in the country, poor Abner Elliot (Blue) has just discovered that his wife Annie has spent the church's money entrusted to him on pretty clothing for herself. He tells her that she must go. Distraught, she throws herself off a bridge (e.g. to commit suicide) but lands in the water right next to Anatol and Vivian, who had been canoeing in that very river. The couple rescues Annie, pulling her into their boat and then taking her ashore to attempt to revive her. Initially, they are unsuccessful, then Vivian notices that the girl is only faking it. Anatol, refusing to believe it, tells his wife to take the car to go get help.While she's pretending to be unconscious, Annie finds and steals Anatol's wallet full of cash. At the very moment when Annie kisses Anatol to thank him for his assistance, Vivian returns with the doctor. He then discovers and realizes that Annie, who's returned to her husband with the money (enabling her to 'kiss and makeup'), stole his money. Vivian, who's had enough (again), drives away leaving Anatol to walk home alone.Upon returning home, Anatol finds Vivian unwilling to forgive him again. So, he decides he may as well live it up. He goes out on the town and tries to hook up with a creature of sin, the apt named performer Satan Synne (Daniels). But she resists his initial advances until she receives word that her husband, who'd been wounded in the war, needs another expensive operation. Apparently, the reason for her notoriety in this (the oldest) profession is the fact that she'd needed the money to pay for countless surgeries to save his life.Satan is relieved to see that Anatol is still around, and she invites him into her lair. Eventually, he learns the truth yet still agrees to give her the $3,000 she needs, even though she learns from Dr. Johnston that her husband didn't survive. Anatol returns to Vivian, whom he discovers with Max.Coincidentally, Nazzer Singh calls on her again at the same time. Anatol asks the hypnotist if he could put his wife under a trance so that he might ask her an important question. Upon doing so, Max, aware that Anatol is intending on asking his wife if she'd been faithful to him, warns him not to do it. Anatol decides that, regardless, he loves her and wants Vivian back, and tells her so to bring her out of the trance. Based upon Max's reaction, one of relief as he lovingly sniffs the lapel flower she'd given him, the audience is made to know the answer (e.g. that Vivian and he had an affair of their own). The reunited couple embraces as the film ends.

jjnxn-1 An interesting document of almost one hundred years ago. Your enjoyment of this will obviously depend on whether you like silents or not. As a look way back to the beginnings of narrative film making and a fashion show of what woman wore then this has some interest. Gloria is unquestionably the star and she holds the screen with no problem. A renown clotheshorse her outfits are bizarre in the extreme to the modern eye but were the height of high fashion in their day. It's also a rare chance to see the doomed Wallace Reid in one of his few existing films. He was deep in the throes of the morphine addiction that would kill him within two years when this was made and looks shockingly old when you realize he was only 29 at the time, he appears 50 minimum.

Steffi_P Cecil B. DeMille, it would appear, had a bit of a thing about ladies' feet. This may partly explain why the first glimpse we catch of Gloria Swanson in the Affairs of Anatol, is a close-up of said body part – bare, exquisitely framed, and being treated to a pedicure.However, it was very much the DeMille way to introduce his characters in bits, summing them up by focusing us on some tiny yet significant feature. Shortly before the entrance of Miss Swanson's foot, we meet Wallace Reid's impatiently shuffling boots and tapping fingers. By doing this DeMille gives us an impression of the man before we even see his face. And throughout this picture, we can see DeMille has a kind of "inside-out" approach to shooting a scene. Cinematic convention, even back then, was generally to start with a master shot, then draw us in on the details. DeMille begins with the minutiae, then gradually reveals the bigger picture. Take the dancehall sequence where Reid meets the subject of his first affair. We first of all see Reid's view of Wanda Hawley, as if she were seated alone at the table. It is only after her character has been established that we see a shot from a little further back, showing us she is in the company of a lecherous old Theodore Roberts! DeMille's process of gradual revelation especially applies to the splendour of a set, such as the giant fan being pulled aside to reveal a stunning backdrop of stars later in the same scene.The purpose of all this is not only to make the picture visually attractive and smoothly paced. DeMille was one of the best at this time when it came to representing the thoughts of his characters. When Reid first sets eyes on Hawley, she really is all he can see, with Roberts being an unimportant distraction. At any one time, DeMille is showing us the focus of the protagonists, without often resorting to anything so subjective as a point-of-view shot. It is a subtler equivalent to the superimpositions of imagined figures or objects that he employed in his earlier pictures. With this canny cinematic approach you'd hardly know you were seeing an adaptation of a thirty-year old stage play.Speaking of which, the original Affairs of Anatol was a popular comedy, and the jokes in theatre productions tend to be in the words, so how to translate it to the silent screen and keep in the comedy? DeMille was no master of slapstick, and his cast were certainly no clowns. However what remains from the original is a kind of growing sense of unlikely silliness, as opportunities for adultery continually appear in Reid's path, only to be flattened by unexpected twists. The world in which the story takes place is so shallow and dignified that these daft situations – slight exaggerations of typical melodramatic plot turns – just about pass for humour.But the fact that it works at all is largely down to the efforts of the cast. Wallace Reid goes through it all with such po-faced seriousness, and the sober and dedicated manner in which he undertakes his infidelity is actually rather funny. The highlight is surely the appearance of Agnes Ayres and Monte Blue, who act out their little slice of melodrama without even a pretence of sincerity. It is perhaps the most frivolous moment of any DeMille film, and given its place among the familiar DeMille trappings, even Ayres jumping in the river in a suicide attempt looks like a gag.Sadly, the only cast member who does not seem quite at home here is Gloria Swanson. She is essentially an air-headed young bride, giving her errant husband an unfeasible number of chances, and frankly the role is beneath her. Here and there she gets to show her powerful dramatic presence, but she becomes a somewhat marginal figure as the titular affairs take centre stage, and her talents are largely wasted. After giving impressive turns in several of his biggest hits, this was to be the last of her collaborations with the director. It seems that in DeMille's eyes, Swanson had become little more than a beautiful pair of feet.

Ron Oliver 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.