Lazybones

For anyone who doubts how sophisticated the silents had become by the mid-1920's, Lazybones is a perfect film to see. This Frank Borzage-directed drama, which takes place across two generations, is fast-moving, sophisticated, witty, and gentle, and so beautifully seductive that even in 2009, one quickly forgets that one is watching a silent movie. Buck Jones, Jane Novak, and, especially, ZaSu Pitts, are so good in their roles, and Borzage's touch is so light that this piece just pulls you in, a lot like watching a great opera performance. He's helped in no small measure by the gorgeous cinematography of Glen MacWilliams and George Schneiderman, which makes this picture -- in the surviving sources -- as beautiful to look at as a photographic document as it is to watch as a drama. And the presence of a tightly constructed Frances Marion screenplay helps, as well, steeped in the kind of romantic tale to which Borzage resonated best. And the director runs with it, delivering a rural drama that somehow manages to feel as bracingly immediate, some 84 years later, as any film of its era, comedy or drama. The moments of gentle humor do hold up, as does the tale of romance across two generations, and the World War I sequence is nicely devised as well. Plus, it is a treat to see Madge Bellamy in something besides Lorna Doone (1922) and The Iron Horse (1924), plus Buck Jones in a serious romantic role, in which he acquits himself extremely well. And overall, this picture proves, once more, that virtually anything that Borzage directed is worth tracking down and seeing, even eight decades later. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide