Review of Lazybones

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. I didn't like this concept, as it just seemed very unreal. 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). It seems she's feeling desperate--she married a sailor who has since died and she's now stuck with his baby. Her family doesn't know and she anticipates that her nasty mother will reject her and the kid (in an 'I told you so' moment)--hence she threw herself in the river. 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. Time passes and the child grows up in a nasty town where the other kids enjoy tormenting her because of her lowly birth. But despite this, she is a nice kid and grows to be a lovely woman. 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. He almost instantly falls in love with her (which is icky considering that he raised her) and plans on asking for her to marry him. 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. The acting, likewise, was quite good. 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. Still, it is a nice little film...if a bit odd.