The Battle of the Sexes (1928 film)


The Battle of the Sexes is a 1928 American comedy film directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Jean Hersholt, Phyllis Haver, Belle Bennett, Don Alvarado, and Sally O'Neil, and released by United Artists. The film was a remake by Griffith of an earlier film he directed in 1914, which starred Lillian Gish. Both films are based on the novel The Single Standard by Daniel Carson Goodman; the story was adapted for this production by Gerrit J. Lloyd.
The film was released as both a silent film, and in a sound version using the Movietone sound-on-film system. In 2004, the film was released on DVD by Image Entertainment. The theme song of the motion picture, "Just a Sweetheart", by Dave Dryer, Josef Pasternack, and Nathaniel Shilkret was omitted from the DVD.

Plot

Marie Skinner is a gold digger with her hooks out for devoted middle-aged family man J.C. Judson, a portly real estate tycoon, who falls for her when she contrives to meet him. When his wife and grown children, Ruth and Billy discover him dancing with Marie at a nightclub, J.C. leaves home the next day. Ruth seeks out Marie to shoot her, but is interrupted by Marie's boyfriend, jazz hound Babe Winsor, who takes a shine to her. When Judson walks in on them he condemns her licentiousness, but is forced to face his double standard when he witnesses a violent argument between Marie and Babe. Full of contrition, J.C. returns to home and hearth and the bosom of his loving family.

Cast