Behold My Wife!
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Mitchell Leisen
Sylvia Sidney
Gene Raymond
Laura Hope Crews
H. B. Warner
Juliette Compton
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
After Michael Carter's wealthy family sabotages his marriage to Mary White, a stenographer, and she commits suicide, Michael angrily drives across the country vowing vengeance. He crashes his car and ends up in a saloon, where he buys drinks for Pete, an Indian. Pete becomes irrational and pulling out his gun, accidentally shoots Michael. Pete's girl friend, Tonita Storm Cloud, wants to keep Pete out of jail and falls in love with Michael while treating his injury. After her Indian tribe excommunicates her for staying alone with a white man, Michael proposes marriage to her, seeing this as a way to get even with his prejudiced, status-seeking family. He apprises them of his marriage via a telegram to New York, in which he states that they will approve of her because she is from one of America's "first families." Michael does not consummate his marriage with Tonita, who is confused by his abstention and lack of affection. On their arrival in New York, he insists she wear her customary Indian garb, and his family is horrified by her appearance. The press and society have great fun mocking the Carters for their new family member, and seeking to save face, Diana Curzon, Michael's sister, convinces the family to have a coming-out party for Tonita, for which Diana will have her immaculately dressed in "modern" clothes. Although the guests are all ready to humiliate Tonita, she overcomes their prejudice and reveals their pettiness, becomes a big hit at the party. Michael is furious, however, for even in this, he feels, his family has won. Tonita finally becomes aware of the reason that Michael married her, and in defiance, she leaves with Bob Prentice, a notorious home wrecker. At his apartment, Bob is about to seduce Tonita, when Diana, with whom he has been having an affair, rushes in and says she has left her husband for him. She shoots him when he refuses to reconcile with her. Tonita takes the blame for the murder, believing she no longer has a life worth living, and also that this is an excellent way to revenge herself on Michael. While the police investigate Bob's apartment, Michael hides in the closet, having come to find Tonita. He overhears the discussion about Tonita's arrest and allows himself to be arrested instead to save his wife, whom he now realizes he loves. At the police station, Michael is allowed a few moments alone with Tonita, during which she confesses that his sister really killed Bob. The police listen in on their conversation, and the true killer revealed, Michael and Tonita are free to pursue their love without further familial interference.
Director
Mitchell Leisen
Cast
Sylvia Sidney
Gene Raymond
Laura Hope Crews
H. B. Warner
Juliette Compton
Monroe Owsley
Ann Sheridan
Charlotte Granville
Kenneth Thomson
Dean Jagger
Eric Blore
Charles Middleton
Ralph Remley
Cecil Weston
Dewey Robinson
Charles C. Wilson
Edward Gargan
Olin Howland
Greg Whitespear
Jim Thorpe
Otto Hoffman
Evelyn Selbie
Raymond Turner
Ferdinand Munier
Nella Walker
Countess Rina De Liguoro
Virginia Hammond
Lillianne Leighton
Fuzzy Knight
Jack Mulhall
Martin Malone
Pat O'malley
Neal Burns
Phillips Smalley
Celeste Ford
Edmund Mortimer
Mabel Forrest
Cyril Ring
Rhea Mitchell
Phil Tead
Eddie Anderson
Matt Mchugh
Rafael Storm
Cosmo Kyrle Bellew
Gwenllian Gill
Frank Dunn
Arnold Korff
Joseph Sauers
Joan Standing
Kate Price
Mike Morita
Charles Stevens
Whitedove Clemens
Billy Lee
Howling Wolf
Mrs. Choree
Crew
Charles Brackett
Emanuel Cohen
Hans Dreier
Bernard Herzbrun
Grover Jones
Oliver La Farge
Vincent Lawrence
Gladys Lehman
William R. Lipman
Ainsworth Morgan
Frank Partos
B. P. Schulberg
Leon Shamroy
Adolph Zukor
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
An early story by Oliver LaFarge in the Paramount story files at the AMPAS Library is titled "Redskin Girl," and an early script was called Red Woman. Ann Sheridan changed her name from Clara Lou Sheridan during production. In 1920, Famous Players-Lasky Corp. produced Behold My Wife, based on the same source, directed by George Melford, and starring Mabel Julienne Scott and Milton Sills (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20; F1.0268).
