New-York tribune., 1922-08-21
On the Screen
Rich Mems Wives, z With an
All-star Cast. Shown af
the Capitol Theater
BY fIarrietts Ijnderhill

A picture with the provocative title
g"sRicli Mehfs Wives III the feature at
Che Capitol Thaater this week. Along
Eabout the fourth reel two gorgeous Rus
sian wolfhounds appear on the lawn
sarrounding the rich mans home; the
rest Is silence. This is what we should
like to write and no more, only it lis
not possible for US TO do so. "Rich
Menss Wives. Is one Of those pictures
which make you feel as though you
must rise up in your seat and shout.
aStop, please stopl There are people
in this theater who are just beginning
to look will; a kindly tolerance on mo-
tion pictures, and they are going to go
away and say: 4 told you pictures
were slush. Now ! guess you'll agree
with me" And If all pictures we're
quite right erich Mems lWivesv is
evidently intended as warning, and we
should say that 1t is--a warning to all
producers. 1t might be called: What TO
Avoid in Making Picture We never
have met House Peters or Claire
Windsor, but If they arc anything like
we think they are, how they must have
suffered as the director pointed his
megaphone at them and commanded.
"Look sternl Hold her of Now
eHesH 5Hu say Inc cnliu remains
with me. You are not fit to be a
heaven, clasp your hands, now cry, wag
your head from side to side and moan: !:
My baby, my baby, my baby" Tho
director evidently had given Miss Wind
sor her instructions beforehand. She
was to stop in the middle Of every
scene, no matter what it was, and do
the eye-rolling, head-wagging act and
rciterate: my baby" The titles, too,
are literary gems and we jotted down a
few Of them on our program. The only
one we can decipher, however, is this !:
Moonlight and frivolity tyhandmaidens
of tragedy and despair"
Claire Windsor is beautiful young
debutante who is fallen in love with
at tho Westchester County Horse
Show, by House Peters. The title here
says that John Masters took two hours
to select a horse but only one min
ute to select wife. He is shown
looking over horse and here one real
ICES why it takes so much longer to
select mount than it does wife
tho hoofs, tendons, teeth and temper
allall como in for minute examina-
ton. Well, anyway, after they are
married Gay anuses herself with the
rotten, rich mems wives, who have
GoeHiiS w w pUG play WiChGQ games
like blind mans buff or dance to the
music Of victrola in the moonlight
or perhaps go swimming by moonlight,
and House Peters does not rpproye Of
it. When his wife danc,X the tango
with CASTOR Glass he go& out on the
veranda and warns her nat she must
give up these people or lose his re-
spcct. But she tells him that he never
gives up anything for her and they
all go merrily down to the beach for
bathing debauch. Here the yillainess
gets in her work. She goes to cabin
by the sea and carries picnic basket
and q bottle Of wine After setting
out the supper for two she and her
escort decide to 60 for walk. Then
Gay and CASTOR Glass stroll up to the
cabin and the wife starts to change
her slippers because her feeS are
wet. Just as she has her shoes off
her husband appears on the scene and
with virtue rampant, tells her that she
is an erring wife. She cries, "No, no
not that" and begs some one in the
crowd to claim the basket and the
wine and clear her name. But Rose
mary Theby, the villainess only smiles
and looks innocent and the wife taints
with her toes we'll pointed.
There We're two scenes which nearly
sent US flying out of the theater to
sob out our heart in the lobby. One
was where Baby writes letter to God
asking him, if ne doesn't need mamma
IN heaven any more, to send her back
home Then he ties the letter to his