Wives and Other Wives

In the labyrinthine domesticity of Jules Furthman’s 'Wives and Other Wives,' a single epistolary misinterpretation spirals into a kaleidoscopic farce. Geoffrey Challoner, a man of mercurial temperament, discovers his bride Robin ensconced in the nostalgic reading of old love letters. Blinded by a flash of green-eyed jealousy, he assumes a phantom rival and abandons the hearth. The vacuum of his absence is filled by Norman Craig, a prospective tenant who inadvertently stumbles into the Challoner residence. In a sequence defined by chiaroscuro tension and slapstick timing, Robin mistakes the interloper for a prowler and discharges a firearm; though the bullet misses, the shock sends the intoxicated Craig into a dead faint. Believing herself a murderess, Robin flees for medical aid, while Geoffrey returns only to find a man seemingly sprawled in his wife's boudoir. The ensuing divorce filing sets the stage for a weekend at Judge Corcoran’s estate—a desperate attempt at reconciliation that instead catalyzes a series of nocturnal misadventures. Between drunken intrusions, compromising positions involving Mrs. Craig, and a tertiary heist plot orchestrated by the domestic staff, the film dismantles the fragility of marital trust before revealing that the incendiary letters were Geoffrey’s own forgotten protestations of love.