Lazybones
Tags: flashback

Plot synopsis:
Sir Reginald Ford (Ian Hunter), known as "Lazybones", is an idle baronet. He hasn't a care in the world, although he doesn't have any money either. His brother and sister introduce him to Kitty McCarthy (Claire Luce), an American heiress, in the hope that he'll marry her and so gain access to her fortune which will help out his family.
Kitty's cousin Mike (Bernard Nedell) brings Kitty the bad news that she's lost her fortune. Mike is hoping to grab the maps for some Arabian oil fields that are being kept in the house. They are being guarded by two detectives and everybody chasing everybody else whilst trying to get the plans makes an amusing sub-plot.
Back in the main story line, Reginald has discovered that he loves Kitty for herself and doesn't care about her not having a fortune. So they get married, despite the warnings from a pessimistic passer-by who they call in as a witness. Neither of them are broke, but it takes a lot to run the old family pile. Kitty has bought a pub and Reginald and Kitty have some fun serving the regulars there.
Back at the family seat Reginald has found a way to make money from other idle members of the English aristocracy. He sets up a "Home for the Idle Wealthy" and they come to stay (for a fee) and act as butler, gardener, chauffeur etc.

Review: Buck Jones is a huge surprise in this 1925 silent, playing a rural man who lives with his mother (Edythe Chapman) and is known as Lazybones.
Frank Borzage's delicate film (beautifully shot) shows the true of a man no one really knows.
He sits around and fishes, neglecting chores and a local girl (Jane Novak) who is in love with him, much to the relief of her battle-axe mother (Emily Fitzroy).The one day, her sister (Zasu Pitts) returns from the city, where she was married to a sailor who has been lost at sea.
Knowing that no one in small-town America will believe she had been married, she sets down the baby and jumps into the river.
She tells him her story and they concoct a plan whereby he will claim to have found the baby and she can return home alone in a few days.Of course the town turns on him and the baby girl, but Lazybones holds to his promise while Pitts is consigned to marry a local jerk.
The years pass.As World War I approached, Lazybones goes off the war while the baby Kit (Madge Bellamy) is now about 15.
Lazybones realizes he is in love with Kit and just as quickly realizes how many of their lives have changed over the years.Jones is terrific.
Uncommonly fine little rural romance, where the familiar plot contrivances (mother love, war heroics, the "Daddy Long Legs" motif of the benefactor falling in love with his ward) are transcended by sensitive treatment.
Buck Jones, for most of his career a B-Western star, shows what he can do under a fine director: He has expressive eyes and a tender rapport with the rest of the cast.
It can be transformative when living (as in the terrific and subtle A MAN'S CASTLE) and, in the hands of performers like Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, can even overcome death -- although I should caution the observant film watcher that the enormous power of those movies lies in the unequaled abilities of Miss Gaynor, who was a truly great film actor; Mr. Farrell was a good one and gave many a fine performance, but it finally occurred to the people who made the movies that no one would go out of his way to see Mr. Farrell on his own.Although the influence of Murnau on Borzage is usually cited as key, looking at this movie, made three years before SUNRISE, we can see that the essence of Borzage is already in place: the small figures against the enormous vistas, the seemingly inevitable workings-out of the plot but most especially the way people look at each other: Buck Jones never gave a better performance than as the title character of this piece.
As another reviewer has put it, it's all in the eyes.Visually, Borzage has not settled on his signature look, a gauzy effect achieved, according to legend, by filming through a pair of sheer white hose that softened the image and forced the audience to see what was in the viewer's heart.
"Lazybones", directed by Herr Frank Borzage was the beginning of this director's most fruitful period in the silent era.
Like Herr Borzage's other most important and remarkable silent films,"Lazybones" was produced for Fox.
"Lazybones" tells the story of Steve Tuttle ( Buck Jones ) "a man as slow as molasses in winter" so the people gave him the nickname of "Lazybones" a man with many unrequited loves that he will sacrifice in a languid way true to his character.
Buck Jones was mainly famous for his cowboy roles ( And Borzage himself was also noted for his early westerns ).
Steve's opposite is JaneNovak (Zasu Pitts) , a victim of her strict mother, and who is a fragile character with little chance for rebellion in a town where convention rules and keeping up appearances is a very important matter.In this film nature and the landscapes are very important too and become subtle characters in their own right.
They sometimes reflect the different moods or the special way of life of the different characters of the film, ( sunny, idyllic and carefree for Lazybones and unsettled and windy for the women ).
Technical effects, flashbacks and camera movements are combined in such an imperceptible manner that the audience can feel and sense the inexorable passing of time in an elegant, sad but beautiful way,this German count, who lacks some of the common human feelings, still thinks that makes for poetry, doesn't it?
In a review of Moonrise (1948), I asked what I thought was a rhetorical question: did Borzage ever direct a film that wasn't about the redemptive power of love?
Then I saw Lazybones, a deceptively low-key film that quietly suggests that love and sacrifice are not always rewarded, that relationships can be destroyed permanently by lack of trust, and that people's characters just don't change.
I don't want to spoil the ending of Lazybones, but I will say: this film doesn't go where you think it's going.
It's not a tragedy, nor a melodrama, but a sustained, tender look at a group of people whose lives are more like those of real human beings than of Hollywood movie characters.Charles "Buck" Jones plays Steve Tuttle, nicknamed "Lazybones." He is introduced by a symbolic shot of molasses pouring slowly over pancakes; then we see Steve snoozing with his feet up against a fence, where they have been so long cobwebs have formed at his toes.
Steve has an ever-loyal mother and a beautiful girlfriend named Agnes (Jane Novak), whose gargoyle of a mother, naturally, doesn't approve of this good-for-nothing.
Then Steve rescues Ruth (Zasu Pitts), a young woman who throws herself into the river in a suicide attempt.
Agnes says she will never speak to him again.What we expect now is some comedy about a man trying to deal with a baby, before a few revelations and a happy denouement.
Instead, the story starts to leap ahead in time, as baby Kit becomes a little girl, teased by her schoolmates and ostracized by the town for her questionable parentage, then a teenager in overalls.
World War I breaks out, and when Steve returns, after inadvertently becoming a hero, he sees the beautiful young woman Kit has become andrather disturbinglyfalls in love with her.
I've never seen Buck Jones in his cowboy persona, but it was a wonderful inspiration to turn this big, square-jawed lug into a gentle, dreamy, wistful character.
The delicate ambiguity of this character development is more reminiscent of Japanese cinema than Hollywood.Zasu Pitts uses her huge mournful eyes and thin, sickly face to powerful effect in the tragic role of a woman forced to watch her child grow up without knowing her.
The mother of Agnes and Ruth is the only character who is less than nuanced.
Borzage seems to have had an obsession with abusive women: like the mother in Lucky Star and the sister in Seventh Heaven, Mrs. Fanning wields a whip against a helpless waif.
Towards the end of the film, her chocolate-box prettiness takes the edge off Kit's appealing outcast character.Lacking a transcendent romance at its center, Lazybones highlights Borzage's interest in outsiders, social rejects, people who create their own world because they can't fit into the mainstream.
Buck Jones stars as rube Steve Tuttle, a man who is the very definition of bone idle.
Agnes' ma, rather a wicked witch type of character straight of the set of the Wizard of Oz prefers Elmer to Steve.
For sure, if she could sweep him into the river she would.To add a dash of zing to the film Agnes' sister Ruth turns up with a baby.
Ruth knows that her mother will never believe the story.
On the way home she ditches herself in the river and Frank hooks more than he bargained for lazing in the Y of a tree with his fishing rod.He agrees to look after the baby, so that Ruth can go home and pretends that nothing has happened.
As in Lucky Star, come the Great War, the protagonist (almost an oxymoron in this case) heads off to France, where he becomes a war hero by total chance.This movie is about the passing of time though.
Steve returns from France and time has moved on, his boots don't fit, and the sticking gate which he always meant to fix has been fixed by a young man who carries his Kit away.This is the part of the movie that really is a punch in the gut.
At it's heart it is a movie about the sheer folly of letting life slip idly by.Steve, one might feel, deserved some reward for bringing Kit up, however in a nice guy comes last world, things like that don't happen.
I therefore will not comment so much on the story itself in this review, but instead concentrate on some of the aesthetic qualities of the film.The careful attention to period detail is one of the salient features of LAZYBONES.
Even the characters age believably as the decades advance (only Kit is portrayed by different actresses as she grows up).
Buck Jones's transformation from a teenager to an almost middle-aged man is especially noteworthy.Another strength of Borzage's direction is his strong evocation of place.
One is left with the feeling that these characters -- especially Steve (Buck Jones) and his mother (Edythe Chapman) -- are inextricably linked with the languid atmosphere of their environment.
The scene in which Ruth (Zasu Pitts) passes by Steve's house in the carriage, catching a glimpse of her daughter, is one such example.
This moment -- consisting of only a few seconds in real time -- is frozen as Borzage focuses on the emotions displayed in the expressions of Ruth, Steve, and Kit (Virginia Marshall).
The reunion scene when Steve returns from the war is certainly every bit the equal of the one near the end of Vidor's THE BIG PARADE, and is another prime example of "stretching time" for dramatic effect.In contrast to such Borzage silent masterpieces as 7TH HEAVEN, STREET ANGEL, and LUCKY STAR, I would classify LAZYBONES as a film fundamentally grounded in realism (note the prominent use of real exteriors instead of studio back-lot sets).
Even in this early lyrical rural romance, a charming reworking of "Silas Marner", there are many Borzage magical moments.
A reassessment of Borzage's films has shown his harmony of narrative and emotional sincerity were carefully planned and not just accidental.Steve Tuttle (Buck Jones) is the local "Lazybones" - "as slow as molasses in winter" - ridiculed by all the town, except his mother.
He loves and is beloved by Agnes (Eva Novak) but her mother (Emily Fitzroy, always the villain) is determined that he shall not be part of their family.
It is Ruth (Zasu Pitts), Agnes's sister - she is returning home, at her mother's command, so she can marry the local "Beau Brummell", but she is bringing her baby, the result of her marriage to a seaman who has been drowned in an accident.
Steve assures Ruth he will take the child home and bring her up and Ruth can return in a few days.Time marches on.
Ruth marries Elmer and Agnes fades from the scene - she is just not emotionally and mentally strong enough to stand up to her mother and after telling Steve that he should put the baby in a home, disappears until the very end of the movie.
Zasu Pitts gives the film some much needed intensity and her's is easily the best performance in the movie.
Ruth escapes from her husband's ceaseless humbug and comforts the child.War comes and to everyone's surprise, Steve returns a hero.
I also found it disturbing and the one false note of the film, that Steve should return with more than fatherly feelings for the now grown up Kit. Fortunately Kit (played by the chocolate box pretty Madge Bellamy) is able to dispel them before it causes embarrassment - she has found love already, with mechanic Dick Ritchie ( a young Leslie Fenton) who has already fixed "that darn gate"!!!
A small, harrowing scene where Agne's learns the truth about Kit's parentage but because she is completely under her mother's domination, she will have to keep it a secret forever and a closing scene showing "Lazybones" fishing - indicating that life goes on.Highly, Highly Recommended..
The title character, Lazybones (Buck Jones), was named this because he's a ridiculous caricature when it comes to his sleeping all the time and being incredibly lazy.
However, I did love his character later in the film when he showed he was more than just a one-dimensional guy.
While fishing, he sees a woman trying to drown herself in the river (Zasu Pitts).
Lazybones takes pity on her and agrees to take the kid home and raise it himself agrees never to tell anyone who the real mother is.
However, Lazybones doesn't see this transformation, as he's off in the war and when he returns he sees her in all her glory.
But another man, much younger, has already won her heart and nice 'ol Lazybones is left with his unrequited love.The film is very lovingly filmed and the director (Frank Borzage) did a great job with the material.
I just couldn't get past how one-dimensional some of the characters seemed (not just Lazybones but Pitts' mother) as well as the creepy notion of a guy wanting to marry a girl he raised.
"Remind me to fix it tomorrow/when I get back home ".That gate ,along with the incredible last (very short) sequence ,is a comic relief ,without which the viewer would be full of despair."Lazybones" begins as a light comedy: a "good-for-nothin" boy whose nickname is the title of the film ,spends his time fishing in the river or pouring syrup on his pancakes -the opening of the movie is revealing- He's got a fiancée,Agnes ,but both she and his mother ,although they love him,think that there 's nothing they can do to cure his laziness.Steve might be the first of the great heroes Borzagesque,one of those who gave all and asked for nothing in return ;he is a cousin of Tim scrawling in the snow ("Lucky Star") ,of Angela smiling through her tears when she's about to be arrested ("Street Angel") ,of Hans doing anything to make his wife happy ("little man what now?" ) of Louise on her boat saying farewell to her husband ("Big city"),of the Dr Paige ("Green Light")using herself as a guinea pig ,of....
the list is endless.All these characters are ready to sacrifice everything so that the persons they love tenderly will be happy .Steve is a good man from the start.After rescuing a woman ,he receives her baby in his home and all along the story his face seems to say:"don't thank me,everybody would have done the same".And Steve has to fight,like the great Borzagesque heroes ,against a hostile ,nay cruel world: the mother beating her daughter is a very violent scene by the silent era's standards ;the little girl considered the ugly duckling by her schoolmates (the subject of the outcast would be applied again in Borzage's underrated "moonrise" ).But the scenes between "Uncle " Steve and his nephew make it all worthwhile.When she complains the others treat her like a punching bag ,he takes her in his arms and they communicate with their eyes .Few directors show more sympathy and tenderness for their own characters.With "Lazybones",Borzage had invented what the Italians would do long after him: a comedy which turns into a drama..
My first entry in the sudden Borzage/Murnau double-quest I've been thrust into by receiving the behemoth collection that bears their names was this forgotten 1925 melodrama with the title that sounds like a slapstick comedy: Frank Borzage's Lazybones.The film concerns a dude named Steve (Buck Jones) that just lays around all the time, and his one activity is fishing, which involves him laying around all the time.
He's sweet on a girl named Agnes (Jane Novak), whose evil mother (Emily Fitzroy) forbids her to go with him, and has arranged a marriage for her abroad student daughter Ruth (Zasu Pitts) with "the local Beau Brummel", Elmer Ballister (William Bailey).
But while doin' jacksh-t, Steve runs into Ruth upon her return, with an infant and a story: she married a seaman in secret because she knew her mother wouldn't approve, she had a child, and then he went off to sea, never to return.
From there, the film fast-forwards episodically to the child, named Kit (Virginia Marshall, later Madge Bellamy) as a young girl, as a teenager, and as a young woman in 1917, and Steve finally has to do something, and gets shipped off to war.The film is a fairly dour affair all around, no one is content, no one is satisfied, no one is happy, and it pretty much stays that way.
Their one recurring gag, how every single person that enter's Steve's house, from grandmother on down to adopted daughter, runs into the stubborn gate and yells, "Darn that gate!", isn't really that funny, but it's one of the few moments of lightheartedness in the entire piece, and even then, it's used as a heartbreaking mile-marker motif later in the film when he gets sent off to war.
Actually, one into the trenches of Europe, the film turns to outright slapstick as through dumb luck, he becomes a national hero.But the film takes a weird turn once he returns home from the war that made me sort of lose all sympathy for Steve and sort of soured the dramatic weight of the film: he falls in love with his adopted daughter.
I'm glad this collection is mostly Borzage (only two of the twelve films in the collection are from Murnau), because of the two I've seen (this and Moonrise, I've been pretty much underwhelmed.{Grade: 6/10 (C+) / #6 (of 6) of 1925}