Past Film/Video | Classics

A Temperamental Wife

(David Kirkland, 1919)

Introduced by Tim Lanza, Vice President and Archivist, Cohen Film Collection
Live music by Sue Harshe

New Restoration

Sepia-toned still featuring a woman sitting in a chair and looking to her right with wide eyes. She has short, curly light hair and light skin.

This silent comedy gem finds Constance Talmadge looking for love in all the wrong places.

The bubbly comedy A Temperamental Wife stars prolific silent film star Constance Talmadge as young Billie Billings. While visiting her fiancé at his office, she catches him cheating with his attractive secretary. Billie cancels the wedding and heads off to a resort in Washington DC, vowing to have nothing to do with men ever again…until she crosses paths with a handsome senator from Idaho.

A testament to the power wielded by some women in Hollywood during the silent era, the film was the first made by the Constance Talmadge Film Company and the second collaboration between Talmadge and the great screenwriter and novelist Anita Loos (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1925). Columbus musician Sue Harshe of Scrawl accompanies the film. (72 mins., 4K DCP)

See this year’s complete Cinema Revival lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
A Temperamental Wife, courtesy of the Cohen Film Collection.

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"One of those bright, exhilarating, and really amusing comedies that an intelligent picturegoer can laugh at without fear of losing his or her self-respect."
The Sun, 1920

Preserved by the Library of Congress. A Cohen Film Collection release.

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Cardinal Health

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
National Endowment for the Arts
Ohio Arts Council
L Brands Foundation
The Columbus Foundation
Nationwide Foundation
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Mike and Paige Crane
Axium Packaging
CampusParc
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
President Kristina M. Johnson and Mrs. Veronica Meinhard
Nancy Kramer
Larry and Donna James
Lisa Barton
Johanna DeStefano
Jones Day
Alex and Renée Shumate

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Past Film/Video

A Temperamental Wife