Raymond Hatton plays an embezzler who fakes his own death and abandons his wife in THE WHISPERING CHORUS (1918). The film used highly symbolic imagery to convey the voices in his head driving him to crime and remorse.

https://moviessilently.com/2014/02/09/the-whispering-chorus-1918-a-silent-film-review/

The subject matter may seem uncharacteristic for director Cecil B. DeMille but it actually fits snugly in his 1910s output, which tended to be lean, punchy and concerned with crime, punishment and often featured unlikeable protagonists.

An urban legend has sprung up that DeMille tried to make an arty film once, THE WHISPERING CHORUS, but when it bombed, he swore he would never try again.

The problem with the story is that it's not true. The film actually turned a tidy profit.

DeMille's turn to bigger, splashier fare was actually tied to his embrace of the marital comedy genre, which scored him lavish box office success.

Along with humor and romance, the films showcased the lavish clothing and décor of the wealthy.

Marital comedies and melodramas with big, lavish everything made him one of the top grossing directors of the late-1910s and 1920s. He had ambitions with historical epics but his first, JOAN THE WOMAN, just broke even. So, bedroom comedies it was, at least for a while.

Even his silent TEN COMMANDMENTS featured a modern melodrama as a frame. KING OF KINGS and THE SIGN OF THE CROSS were the pictures that sealed his reputation as a Biblical/religious filmmaker in the late 1920s-early 1930s.

His 1910s stuff, though. That's my sweet spot.

DeMille's career is a lot more complicated than you may realize and can't be understood by simply viewing his splashy Technicolor fare. If his 1910s silents were credited to anybody else, they would be praised as masterpieces.