The Marriage Circle is a 1924 American silent comedy film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch and distributed by Warner Bros. Based on the play Only a Dream by Lothar Schmidt, the screenplay was written by Paul Bern. The circle of the title refers to the ring of infidelities (suspected and otherwise) central to the plot.

The film was remade in 1932 by Lubitsch and George Cukor as One Hour with You.

Plot

In 1923 Vienna, when Mizzi threatens to leave her husband, Prof. Josef Stock, for cruelty for being indifferent to an invitation from her friend Charlotte to introduce them to her husband, he smiles at the suggestion, which infuriates her; she changes her mind and refuses to accommodate him. She goes alone. When Prof. Stock sees his wife get into a taxi with a man, he cheers up. (He later hires a private detective to obtain proof of her misconduct for a divorce.) As it turns out, they are strangers, merely sharing the taxi.

Charlotte greets Mizzi warmly and tells her how happy her marriage is, Mizzi warns her it will not last. Charlotte s husband, Franz Braun, returns home; it is the man she flirted with in the taxi. Mizzi later tries to seduce him. Franz loves his wife and, despite Mizzi s wiles, he never succumbs to her blandishments, even though she cleverly diverts his wife s jealousy to another woman, leaving the road clear for herself.

The situation is complicated by the fact that Franz s wife is greatly admired by his medical partner, Dr. Gustav Mueller, who, though not encouraged, loses no opportunity to press his suit. Out of this entanglement, Franz finally comes clean and regains his wife s confidence, while Mizzi and Dr. Mueller turn their attention to each other, with Prof. Stock left without his divorce.

Cast

• Monte Blue as Doctor Braun
• Florence Vidor as Charlotte, his wife
• Creighton Hale as Doctor Mueller
• Adolphe Menjou as Professor Josef Stock
• Marie Prevost as Mizzie, his wife
• Harry Myers as A Detective
• Dale Fuller as A Nervous Woman
• Esther Ralston as Miss Hofer
• Alan George (uncredited)

Box office

According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $373,000 domestically and $54,000 in foreign markets.

Preservation

This film is extant, preserved in a variety of formats at a number of archives. U.S. archives holding this film include the Museum of Modern Art and the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Year	1924
ReleaseDate	1924-02-10
RuntimeMins	85
RuntimeStr	1h 25min
Plot	Professor Stock and his wife Mizzi are always bickering. Mizzi tries to seduce Dr. Franz Braun, the new husband of her good friend Charlotte.
Directors	Ernst Lubitsch
Writers	Paul Bern, Lothar Schmidt
Stars	Florence Vidor, Monte Blue, Marie Prevost
Produced by	Ernst Lubitsch
Cinematography by	Charles Van Enger,Henry Sharp
Art Direction by	Lewis Geib,Esdras Hartley
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Henry Blanke,James Flood
Art Department	Victor Vance
Camera and Electrical Department	F.N. Murphy
Genres	Comedy
Companies	Warner Bros.
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	Not Rated
ImDbRating	7.1
ImDbRatingVotes	1300
Keywords	suspected adultery,divorce case,modern prologue,vienna austria,husband wife estrangement