Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne
“You may argue with it. You may break down and have an honest-to-goodness weep. But you’ll love every bit of it.” New York’s Daily News got it right about this surprising pearl of a movie, which quietly upends traditional domestic roles when an exacting housewife has to go to work and her lackluster husband must stay at home. Alice Joyce and Clive Brook justly earned high praise as well for the warmth and credibility they brought to their portrayal of a couple struggling to keep their family together when hit with the very realistic problems of workplace downsizing, an unruly child, and health problems. Directed with a deft touch by former screen star King Baggot, The Home Maker is a standout in his long career, with Moving Picture World exulting about the 1925 film, “Universal owes him a flock of congratulatory telegrams and a museum of medals.”
35mm preservation print courtesy of the UCLA Film and Television Archive
Introduction by Kevin Brownlow