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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 1177

The Primitive Lover

Synopsis

Phyllis finds her practical husband dull beside a romantic author believed to have died abroad. The writer's return prompts her to seek a divorce. Her husband then tests the adventurous ideals of the books by taking Phyllis and the writer into a mountain setting where imagined heroism is of little help.

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Video edition
Wikimedia Commons
Original language
No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: not identified.
This copy runs
69:35
Subtitles
No subtitle track in this language

No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: not identified. No subtitle track in this language.

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

Wikimedia Commons · Sidney Franklin · Public domain

Cast

Inspirations

Frances Marion adapted Edgar Selwyn's The Divorcee for Constance Talmadge. The comedy contrasts literary fantasy with practical competence, while its resolution treats coercive behavior as a solution to marital conflict.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

The public-domain references concern the original films in the United States. Rights can differ for other countries, editions, restorations, music or translations. Sources are listed on each film page.

Availability checked on September 15, 2026.

Photograph credit

Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.

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