Constance Binney

A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT

Ideal Films, 1922.  Directed by Denison Clift.  Camera:  Unknown.  With Constance Binney, Fay Compton, Malcolm Keen, Henry Victor, Henry Vibart, Martin Walker, Fewlass Llewellyn, Dora Gregory, Sylvia Young.

A Bill of Divorcement is a 1922 British silent film about the Fairfield family, whose lives are upended when a wife's husband, who has been in an insane asylum for 20 years, returns home cured, just as she is about to remarry.  This homecoming complicates her new engagement and causes her adult daughter to consider the possibility of inheriting her father's mental illness and ultimately sacrifice her own chance at happiness to care for him.  The story is a dramatization of a play by the same name written in response to a 1920s British law that made insanity a ground for divorce.

The setup:  The story begins with Margaret Fairfield preparing to marry Gray Meredith after divorcing her husband, Hilary Fairfield, who has been institutionalized for 20 years.  Her daughter, Sydney, is also engaged to Kit Pumphrey.

The catalyst:  On Christmas Day, Hilary returns home, unexpectedly cured of his insanity.

The conflict:  Hilary's return destroys Margaret's new plans.  Furthermore, he is unaware that Sydney is his daughter, as he has never met her.

The resolution:  Sydney, fearing she may have inherited her father's mental illness, gives up her own engagement to care for him so that her mother can be free to marry Meredith.  The film explores themes of hereditary mental illness and a woman's right to remarry after a husband's extended insanity.

Internet Movie Database