''Bluebeard's 8th Wife'' (alternately ''Bluebeard's Eighth Wife'') is a 1923 American silent

romantic comedy film Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

produced by

Famous Players-Lasky Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and ...

and distributed by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. It was directed by

Sam Wood Samuel Grosvenor Wood (July 10, 1883 – September 22, 1949) was an American film director and producer who is best known for having directed such Hollywood hits as ''A Night at the Opera (film), A Night at the Opera'', ''A Day at the Races (fi ...

and stars

Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...

. The film is based on the French play ''La huitième femme de Barbe-Bleue'' by

Alfred Savoir Alfred Poznański (23 January 1883 – 26 June 1934), better known by his alias Alfred Savoir, was a Polish-born French comedy playwright of Jewish background. Career Alfred Poznański was born into a Jewish family in the Polish city of Łódź ...

which is based on the

Bluebeard "Bluebeard" (french: Barbe bleue, ) is a French folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in ''Histoires ou contes du temps passé''. The tale tells the st ...

tales of the 15th century. The play ran on Broadway in 1921 starring

Ina Claire Ina Claire (born Ina Fagan; October 15, 1893February 21, 1985) was an American stage and film actress. Early years Ina Fagan was born October 15, 1893 in Washington, D.C. After the death of her father, Claire began doing imitations of fellow bo ...

in the Swanson role. Paramount remade the story in 1938 directed by

Ernst Lubitsch Ernst Lubitsch (; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as ...

and starring

Gary Cooper Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, a ...

and

Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures ...

Plot

As described in a film magazine review, Mona marries John Brandon and immediately after discovers that she is his eighth wife. Determined that she will not be the eighth to be divorced from him, she sets out on a teaser campaign which proves very effective until Brandon tells her that she is bought and paid for. Furious, she determines to give him grounds for a divorce and is subsequently found in her room with another man. In the end, however, Brandon discovers that she really loves him and they leave for a happy honeymoon.

Cast

Preservation

With no prints of ''Bluebeard's 8th Wife'' located in any film archives,The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''Bluebeard's 8th Wife''
/ref> it is a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

References

External links

* *
Lobby posterStill
at gettyimages.com

at Glorious Gloria Swanson 1923 films 1923 romantic comedy films American romantic comedy films American silent feature films American black-and-white films American films based on plays Films directed by Sam Wood Famous Players-Lasky films Paramount Pictures films Lost American films 1923 lost films 1920s American films Silent romantic comedy films Silent American comedy films Films based on Bluebeard {{1920s-romantic-comedy-film-stub