{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = Idle Wives | image = Idle Wives (1916) - 1.jpg | image_upright = 0.65 | caption = Advertisement | director = Lois Weber<br>Phillips Smalley | writer = Lois Weber | starring = Lois Weber<br>Phillips Smalley<br>Mary MacLaren<br>Maude George | music = | cinematography = Allen G. Siegler | editing = | distributor = Universal Film Manufacturing Company | released = {{Film date|1916|09|15}} | 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kinolorber.com/product/pioneers-first-women-filmmakers-blu-ray|title=American Film Institute Catalog|access-date=May 31, 2019|archive-date=May 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190531180245/https://www.kinolorber.com/product/pioneers-first-women-filmmakers-blu-ray|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kinolorber.com/product/pioneers-first-women-filmmakers-blu-ray|title=Kino Lorber Home Video|access-date=May 31, 2019|archive-date=May 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190531180245/https://www.kinolorber.com/product/pioneers-first-women-filmmakers-blu-ray|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Plot == thumb|thumbtime=0|The first two reels of ''Idle Wives'' 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.
== Cast == * Lois Weber as Anne * Phillips Smalley as John Wall * Mary MacLaren as Molly * Edwin Hearn as Richard * Seymour Hastings as Billy Shane * Countess Du Cello as Wall's Mother * Pauline Aster as Alberta * Cecilia Matthews as Molly's Mother * Ben F. Wilson as Mr. Jamison * Maude George as Mrs. Jamison * Neva Gerber as Mary Wells * Charles Perley as Tough Burns
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == * {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5IFZAAAAMAAJ&q=anthony+slide+lois+weber|title=Lois Weber: The Director Who Lost Her Way in History|last=Slide|first=Anthony|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1996|isbn=0313299455|place=Westport, CT|pages=37}} * {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9nokDQAAQBAJ&q=shelley+Stamp+lois+weber|title=Lois Weber in Early Hollywood|last=Stamp|first=Shelley|publisher=University of California Press|year=2015|isbn=978-0520284463|place=Oakland, CA|pages=105–106}} * {{cite book|url=http://www.screeningthepast.com/2014/12/lois-weber-or-the-exigency-of-writing/|title=Lois Weber, or the exigency of writing|last=Routt|first=Bill|year=2001}}
==External links== {{commons category|Idle Wives}} *[https://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/screening-room/idle-wives-1914 ''Idle Wives'' on National Film Preservation Foundation cite] with a brief clip and film notes by film historian Shelley Stamp *[https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/16749 ''Idle Wives'' entry in American Film Institute catalog] *{{IMDb title|0006846}}
{{Lois Weber}}
Category:1916 films Category:American silent feature films Category:Films directed by Lois Weber Category:1916 drama films Category:American black-and-white films Category:American silent drama films Category:Universal Pictures films Category:1916 American films Category:1916 English-language films Category:Articles containing video clips