{"id":25192,"date":"2012-04-09T11:33:07","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T18:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=25192"},"modified":"2020-12-27T13:13:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T20:13:56","slug":"marriage-circle-the-1924","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=25192","title":{"rendered":"Marriage Circle, The (1924)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;How can a husband, who loves his wife, neglect her so!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Poster-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-25195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Poster-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Poster.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAn unhappily married woman (Marie Prevost) attempts to seduce the husband (Monte Blue) of her best friend (Florence Vidor), not knowing that her own divorce-seeking husband (Adolph Menjou) has set a detective (Harry Myers) on her trail; meanwhile, Vidor must stave off affectionate advances from her husband&#8217;s business partner (Creighton Hale).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Adolph Menjou Films<\/li>\n<li>Ernst Lubitsch Films<\/li>\n<li>Love Triangle<\/li>\n<li>Marital Problems<\/li>\n<li>Silent Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\n<em>The Marriage Circle<\/em> was Ernst Lubitsch&#8217;s second American film, and is notable for showing early evidence of his fabled &#8220;touch&#8221; &#8212; i.e., his light hand with sophisticated romantic comedies. It was remade in 1932 as the musical <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=4192\"><em>One Hour With You<\/em><\/a>, and my reaction to both films was much the same: frustration with the character played by Blue (who looks somewhat like Chevalier, his counterpart in the later version). We never quite understand the motivations of this presumably-happily-married fellow, given that he allows himself to be seduced by a <em>femme fatale<\/em>, and shows signs of not being nearly as committed to his devoted wife as he should be (i.e., he carelessly drops a bouquet of flowers she&#8217;s picked for him); is their &#8220;ideal marriage&#8221; just a figment of Vidor&#8217;s imagination, or is Blue really that much of a two-timing, gullible sap? The most believable characters are played by Prevost and Menjou, whose strained marriage (as epitomized in the smartly filmed opening scene) comes across as all-too-realistic. Their manipulative machinations &#8212; and easy willingness to use others for their own purposes &#8212; are reminiscent in some ways of the dynamics between Valmont and the Marquise in <em>Dangerous Liaisons<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Adolph Menjou as Professor Stock<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Menjou.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Menjou.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-25194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Menjou.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Menjou-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Menjou-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Florence Vidor as Charlotte Braun<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Vidor.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Vidor.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-25193\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Vidor.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Vidor-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Marriage-Circle-Vidor-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s certainly must-see for Lubitsch fans. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0015119\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.brightlightsfilm.com\/44\/marriage.php\">Bright Lights Film Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;How can a husband, who loves his wife, neglect her so!&#8221; Synopsis: An unhappily married woman (Marie Prevost) attempts to seduce the husband (Monte Blue) of her best friend (Florence Vidor), not knowing that her own divorce-seeking husband (Adolph Menjou) has set a detective (Harry Myers) on her trail; meanwhile, Vidor must stave off affectionate advances from her husband&#8217;s business partner (Creighton Hale). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Adolph Menjou Films Ernst Lubitsch Films Love Triangle Marital Problems Silent Films&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=25192\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25192"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59977,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25192\/revisions\/59977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}