Lazybones (1925)
Directed by Frank Borzage

Film Review

An exquisitely crafted portrait of unrequited love, Lazybones represents one of the high points of Frank Borzage's extraordinarily productive filmmaking career.  The film transcends the conventional melodrama of its era, having a raw lyrical quality and simplicity that cannot fail to captivate and move an audience.  Borzage's delicacy and humanity are apparent in virtually every shot and the film has a realism that prevents it from ever feeling contrived or mawkish.

The titular role is played by Buck Jones, a major star of popular westerns at the time.  Here he gives a sympathetic and totally convincing performance in a low key part that combines pathos and humour to great effect.  Zasu Pitts and Jane Novak heighten the film's emotional impact as the principal heroines, both talented and highly photogenic young actresses of the period.  Beautifully photographed in the realist tradition, with natural locations that vividly evoke a calmer, less hurried time to the one in which we now live, Lazybones is one of those rare films from the silent era which truly engages with a modern audience and leaves a lasting impression.

Film Synopsis

It is not without reason that Steve Tuttle is known to everyone as Lazybones.  He is a young man who is never in a hurry to do anything, even if his life depended on it.  One day he will get round to all the jobs that need doing around the house where he lives with his aged mother, but these can wait a while longer.  One day he might marry the girl he has taken a fancy to, Agnes Fanning, but there's time for that yet.  Steve is happy to saunter through life at a sedate pace, not a gallop, seeing nothing but good in his habitual laziness.

It is with uncharacteristic haste that Steve comes to the rescue of Agnes's sister Ruth when she falls into the river.  The young man gets no thanks for his efforts.  It seems that Ruth had intended to drown herself, after her husband died at sea, leaving her with a recently born baby, Kit.  With no way to prove she was married, Ruth knows that everyone at home will think her child is illegitimate.  The disgrace will kill her!

The kind-hearted Steve offers to spare the young woman this dishonour by adopting the little girl as his own.  It is selfless act which causes him to lose his beloved Agnes.  Nearly twenty years later, Steve arrives back in his hometown, after serving in the Great War, to find that Kit has grown up into an attractive young woman.  It is now that Steve realises he is in love with her, but she has already lost her heart to a younger man...