The First Year. 1926. USA. Directed by Frank Borzage. 35mm. 75 min.
Frank Craven’s 1920 Broadway hit was first filmed by Fox in 1926, by the established team of director Frank Borzage and screenwriter Frances Marion (Humoresque, Secrets), with Matt Moore and Kathryn Perry as the young Midwestern couple struggling to survive the inevitable disappointments and disillusionments of the first year of marriage. The centerpiece, as it was on the stage, is an extended dinner scene in which the young marrieds struggle to impress a big-city visitor (J. Farrell MacDonald) with their refined manners and sophisticated cuisine—a sequence handily stolen by the pioneering African American actress Carolynne Snowden as an inexperienced maid. Preservation funded by the Film Foundation and Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Piano accompaniment by Bernie Anderson.