Lazybones (1925)

Originally posted to Facebook on 1/14/2018

Lazybones was our fifth film from 1925, and our first directed by Frank Borzage, who later won two Best Director Oscars (including the very first in 1929, though in that year there were two direction categories, one for dramatic pictures, and one for comedies.)

The title of this film is the nickname of the protagonist, played by Buck Jones. He adopts a baby girl from his neighbor, played by Zazu Pitts, who, after returning home from the city, is afraid to admit to her mother that she, though unmarried, has a child. Of course that deflects the social scorn to Jones, who nonetheless raises the girl to adulthood.

Up until the final act, Jones gives a solid performance as a flawed but basically heroic man, who accepts his choice with relative equanimity. Jones doesn't seem to have appeared in too many more non-genre films, instead starring in many many low-budget westerns up though the forties, and he probably would have continued doing so if he hadn't died at the Cocoanut Grove fire in 1942, the deadliest nightclub fire in history. In this film his character's name is Steve, but in the hundred-plus other films he made before his death he played such roles as Buck Roberts, Buck Pearson, Buck Weaver, Buck Weylan, Buck Dawson, Buck Benson, and at least a dozen other Bucks.

The film hits many of the plot points you might expect, though it takes a much lighter tone than similarly themed movies such as 1920's Way Down East, or the film we will be seeing in a few weeks, 1926's The Scarlet Letter. In part this is because Borzage takes a less melodramatic approach to the material, and also it is because the father-daughter relationship shelters both of the main characters to some degree from the world's judgment. Therefore it is extremely disheartening, after Jones returns from serving in WW1, that he develops romantic feelings for the girl he has raised from an infant. The film seems to realize at some level that this is wrong, but doesn't come close to understanding how much of a betrayal this would be to his daughter. It is truly bizarre that nobody involved with releasing this film realized that this plot development was wildly out of place in this kind of film. I'm tempted to blame changing mores, but it would be interesting to see if film reviews at the time had any similar objections.

Next week we move on to The Freshman, our sixth film from 1925, and our third starring Harold Lloyd (not counting 1928's Speedy.) The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT