The Wife of the Centaur

The Wife of the Centaur
Still with John Gilbert and Aileen Pringle
Directed byKing Vidor
Written byDouglas Z. Doty
Based onThe Wife of the Centaur
by Cyril Hume
StarringEleanor Boardman
John Gilbert
Aileen Pringle
CinematographyJohn Arnold
Edited byHugh Wynn
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • December 1, 1924 (1924-12-01)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

The Wife of the Centaur is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by King Vidor,[1] and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer shortly after it formed from a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Mayer Pictures in April 1924. Metro had acquired the movie rights to Cyril Hume's debut novel Wife of a Centaur (Doran, 1923) in November.[2] A novelist imagines that he has been reincarnated as a creature from Greek mythology and becomes entangled in a love triangle.[3]

Plot

As described in a review in a film magazine,[4] author and poet Jeffrey Dwyer (Gilbert) has a conflicted nature, at times he has high ideals but he also feels strongly the appeal of the purely sensual. He is strongly attracted to Joan Converse (Boardman), who drops her flapper nature when she falls in love with him, but he neglects her when he meets the flashing, dashing Inez Martin (Pringle), a worldly woman with strong sex appeal. Inez finally throws him over and marries Harry Todd (McCullough), but the marriage is a failure. Jeffrey, returning to his senses after a period of debauchery and wild jazz parties, marries Joan. They go to a lodge in the mountains and are happy until Inez, seeking to win him, takes a house nearby. For months he fights the infatuation, but one night writes a letter to Joan and goes to Inez. However, his better nature makes him realize himself as he really is, and he returns to Joan, who understands and forgives him.

Cast

Preservation

With no prints of The Wife of the Centaur (1924) located in any film archives,[1][5] it is a lost film. A few seconds of Boardman from this film is included (from around 3:07 to 3:10) in Twenty Years After (1944), a promotional short made by MGM to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b "Progressive Silent Film List: The Wife of the Centaur". silentera.com. Retrieved March 26, 2009.
  2. ^ "Cub Reporter Gets $25,000 For Movie Rights To Novel". The Sun (Baltimore). November 23, 1923. Dateline "New York, Nov. 22 (Special)".   "Movie Facts and Fancies". Boston Daily Globe. December 1, 1923, page 2.
  3. ^ Durgnat and Simmon 1988 p. 342
  4. ^ Sewell, Charles S. (January 17, 1925). "The Wife of the Centaur; Entertaining Metro-Goldwyn Production Is Based on Cyril Hume's Novel of Modern Life". The Moving Picture World. 72 (3). New York City: Chalmers Publishing Co.: 268. Retrieved July 20, 2021.
  5. ^ "The Wife of the Centaur". American Silent Feature Film Survival Database. Retrieved January 10, 2014.

Sources

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