| Idle Wives | |
| Image Upright: | 0.65 |
| Director: | Lois Weber Phillips Smalley |
| Starring: | Lois Weber Phillips Smalley Mary MacLaren Maude George |
| Cinematography: | Allen G. Siegler |
| Distributor: | Universal Film Manufacturing Company |
| Runtime: | 7 reels |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | Silent (English intertitles) |
Idle Wives is a 1916 American silent drama film co-directed by Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley.[1] The film was released by Universal Film Manufacturing Company. Surviving reels of the film are preserved at the Library of Congress. The film was released on DVD/Blu-ray in 2018.[2]
Characters go to the movies to watch Life's Mirror, a film where they see their own lives turned into dramas. A shop girl dating a young man against her parents' wishes watches her onscreen counterpart become pregnant; an impoverished family watches as a family onscreen lives beyond their means; and an unfaithful husband watches as his onscreen wife leaves him and returns to social work. After the film characters have learned their lessons: the shop girl apologizes to her parents; the family decides to live within its means; and the wealthy man leaves his mistress and returns to his wife.