The Homemaker

One of my very favorite books is The Homemaker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. If you haven’t read it yet, then it is an absolute must for your Christmas list and I plan on saying no more at all beyond telling you that the writing is lovely and it spirits you away to a quieter time and place that turns out to be festering all the age old dilemmas we Mommys suffer now…
While pottering around the internet a few days ago, during a rather ugly bout of procrastination, I happened upon these wonderful movie posters for the Universal film edition of The Homemaker from 1925. though I have searched and searched the only place I can find to watch The Homemaker online looks a little bit dodgy, and demands a credit card up front, so I don’t think I can recommend it, and we will have to make do the silent, technicolor land of our imaginations…

 The film stars one Alice Joyce, and back before it’s release The Variety described The Homemaker as” a study of middle-class domestic life”  with moments when the film almost reaches the heights of greatness… 

Which is I think a rather apt description of the book… it too almost reaches the height of greatness even when the story seems improbable and the characters portrayed a little too sickly. But still we are rooting for them. For Evangaline and her new role in life. For Lester and his battle with himself for the right thing to do. And for little Stephen whose greatest fear is finding his teddy bear in the washing machine…

.. and suffers for his angst in a scene I am not sure we would be comfortable watching today.

Time for a re-make methinks. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?