“This is a
box-office picture par excellence for all audiences. It is hard to conceive an
audience that will dislike it.”
Remarkable film and remarkable venue… I’ve never watched
a silent film in a retail environment before but this felt more like a club as
the tea cups and saucers were passed around along with strawberries and cream
scones…
Persephone specialise in keeping significant books by
women authors in print and one of these is The
Home Maker written by Dorothy Canfield's and published in 1924, it offers a
glimpse into our grandparents’ world that may still surprise and shock.
Mary O’Hara adapted the story and King Baggott directed
what Moving Picture World
breathlessly described as: “One of the
Finest Pictures Ever Made” whilst Variety
was more mealy-mouthed saying that it “…almost
reaches the heights of greatness… Perhaps had the plot not been so typically
American, one of the highly touted foreign realistic directors might have done
something big with it.”
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| Alice Joyce still from Greta de Groat's Silent Diva site - link below. |
That would have been to have missed the entire point of
mainstream American culture attempting a story such as this, one that touches
the most delicate of subjects: American manhood and the role of the American
wife in supporting the same. This picture is a brave and subtly-astonishing one
because of those who made it.
The Home Maker
is down as “quite hard to find” but when you have connections like the
Persephone you can ask to screen your friend Kevin Brownlow’s copy. It was
cramped but convivial and I’ve rarely seen as attentive and respectful audience
outside of the more established silent film emporiums.
Alice Joyce (no relation, probably… I mean yes, possibly, at some point from the 1800s and, co-incidentally her mother was a McIntyre, my mother’s clan…) plays Eve
Knapp the very able wife of a not so able husband played by Clive Brook, who made a
brave decision in accepting this role. The operative word that keeps being
repeated is efficient and Eva Knapp
copes very well with every situation she faces whereas husband Lester struggles
to make his mark at work.
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| Clive Brook (silentfilmsstillarchive.com) |
Lester fails to get promoted, his lack of efficiency
meaning the rule that length of employment guarantees seniority. It is a
supreme humiliation for the main bread-winner and he can see no way out other
than to take his own life and make sure the insurance money gets paid to Eva
and their three children. He succeeds in accidentally falling off the roof but
doesn’t perish only leaving himself crippled in a wheel chair.
Eva refuses charity from his previous employer and asks
for a job instead. Reluctantly Lester’s old boss agrees and she is soon
doubling sales and making herself invaluable.
Back at home, Lester too finally finds his metier, as he
starts to relish spending more time with the family; the joys of parenting
outweighing his failure in the world of work and his physical condition. Here
at last is something he is good at and there’s a lovely moment when he watches
his youngest, Stephen (played by the quite remarkable Billy Kent Schaeffer) try
to beat an egg, father’s patient encouragement pays off as the boy works out
what to do.
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| Detail from a lobby card |
A new equilibrium is achieved in the home but it’s still
an uneasy one for if Lester were to recover the couple would have to resume
their old roles bizarre as it may seem in 2017. I won’t give anything away but
I liked the way this story was essentially about a family working together even
if sacrifices have to be made above and beyond gender expectations and, yes,
even the maintenance of male pride.
Alice Joyce is superb, holding so much emotion with almost casual ease, her huge dark eyes running deep with meaning. Clive Brook’s also a class
act and any worries that his character will simply be a loser are blown away by
his display in the film’s second half.
Young Billy Kent Schaeffer is a live wire and was later compared
with Mickey Rooney but didn’t sustain a career in spite of this exceptionally-promising
performance. There’s also George Fawcett, always good value, gurning away in
the amiably convincing role of the family doctor.
High on strawberries and fine tea I may well have been,
but this is a film well worth seeking out.
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| Another dramatic lobby card! |
Naturally I couldn’t leave without the book – the cover
and production values are so high at PB and these are tactile treasures you’ll
want to hold as well as read. My daughter has already taken it: a nineteen year
old keen to find out what went before… Persephone helps books continue and
there’s nothing so important to writing and stories that they persist and that
they are read!
Copies of The Home
Maker can be obtained from the Persephone website whilst there is also some
interesting background about book and author on their forum.
Not for the first time I’m indebted to Greta de Groat’s
excellent website, The Unsung Divas of the Silent Screen from which I gleaned
the reviews and images above. It’s a thoroughly-researched site and you can easily
get lost there for days… Thankyou Greta!
