The Battle of the Sexes

DIRECTOR:

D.W. Griffith

STARRING:

Donald Crisp, Lillian Gish and Robert Harron

PLOT:

Frank Andrews (Donald Crisp) is a well-to-do, middle class apartment dweller who is devoted to his wife (Mary Alden) and two children, John (Robert Harron) and Jane (Lillian Gish). Andrews enters into a mid-life crisis when a fetching young lady, Cleo (Fay Tincher), moves into the apartment next door to the Andrews'. Cleo takes note of Andrews' interest in her and begins to flirt with him, going so far as to set a fire in her apartment in order to attract his aid. Before long, Andrews and Cleo are involved in an affair, and Andrews begins to neglect both his family and responsibilities at work. Humiliated and aghast at her mother's silent suffering over the situation, Jane goes next door with the idea of killing Cleo, but instead they strike up a conversation, and a mutual understanding. They hatch a plan whereby one of Cleo's former beaus (Owen Moore) appears to be courting Jane in front of Andrews, who swiftly condemns his daughter's interest in the man. Jane counters by pointing out Andrews' own poor moral choices, and he sees the error of his ways. Andrews is happily reconciled to his family, and Cleo sets out in search of new digs.