WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Lazy Bones 1925 directed by Frank Borzage starring Madge Bellamy, Buck Jones and Zasu Pitts. Filmed from a successful show, according to Borzage's biographer his most polished film this side of Seventh Heaven. The story concerns a young man (lazy bones played by Buck Jones) who is too bone idle to mend the gate and roof of his home. His girl Agnes has a rather imperious mother with ideas of her own self importance, mother doesn't rate Lazybones as husband material. She has set her other daughter Ruth/Zasu to marry a self important man about town. She summons Ruth back from school but unbeknowst to mother Ruth has a daughter, conceived from her marriage to a sailor who went to sea and never returned. Ruth returns and instead of facing her fate throws herself into the fast flowing river, Lazybones sleeping and fishing hears her and jumps in to save her. He hears her sorry stroy and suggests he should keep the babe/Kit until Ruth explains to her mother. A couple of days later Ruth tells her mother, her mother whips her viciously with a whip and threatens her to never speak of her daughter of else she would have her placed in an orphanage. Lazybones adopts Kit but loses Agnes.Forward 5 years and Ruth is married to the man her mother intended but her heart is far away. She hears her daughter, now adopted by Lazybones being teased outside and runs to comfort her, Borzage uses some wonderful secenes here of the little girl, rejected and tormented by all around her, it's great silent cinema as is the look on Ruth/Zasu's look as she watches her daughter. Forward another 10 years and Ruth is dying, in a flood of superhuman strength she overpowers her mother and runs to Lazybones house to see and hold her daughter before it's too late, the scene between mother, daughter and adopted father is so tender (I don't think Zasu has ever been better) Borzage doesn't employ histronics and when Ruth expires in her daughers arms it is from her daughters back, we see Ruth's arms going limp. Forward again 2 years and lazybones is sent to war, by accident he captures 20 Germans, he returns home a hero finding Kit(Madge Bellamy in love with another man, inexplicably, Lazybones comes back wanting to marry Kit, this for me is the only false note of the film, he raised her, why would he have romantic intentions towards her. The film ends with Kit happily married and Lazybones back to his favorite sleeping position.

I like Borzage's work, he's subtle. Lazybones dreams his whole life while in his existence he accomplishes great things that he never realises and without protest, meets only with deception, sacrifice and suffering, the acknowledgement is terrible without being bitter.

[drednm]

good comments.... my IMDb review of this film:

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. She also has a baby. Knowing that no one in small-town America will believe she had been married, she sets down the baby and jumps into the river. Lazybones sees her and jumps in to save her. 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. Even the sister turns on Lazybones and says she'll never speak to him again. The years pass.

As World War I approached, Lazybones goes off the war while the baby Kit (Madge Bellamy) is now about 15. Lazybones inadvertently becomes a war hero and returns to a town that has still never quite forgiven him. Kit now has a boyfriend (Leslie Fenton). 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. He usually starred in Westerns and for a time rivaled William S. Hart in popularity. Here he has a chance at a part that requires a delicate mix of drama and comedy. Zasu Pitts is fantastic as the tragic Ruth. Best know for her fluttery old maids, here she turns in a solid dramatic performance. Also good are Bellamy, Novak, and Chapman. A special word is needed for Fitzroy, who along with Josephine Crowell, ranks among the major battle-axes of the silent era.

A final word on Buck Jones. He was still going strong in 1942, starring in B Westerns when he was caught in the famous Coconut Grove fire in Boston. He died two days later.

The film supposedly takes place in Milo, Maine.... where my burial plot is.

[silentscreen]

Buck Jones was a competent actor, and very popular in his time. This may have been his best role. The first time I saw him was in "Just Pals" on the silent Ford at Fox collection. Fox was very fond of westerns, and Jones was one of his early stars. William Fox was a pariah in Hollywood at the time of his death, but he was an early visionary as well. You get the full scoop on him in the documentary on the Murnau, Fox, and Borzage set. What an excellent set that is!

[charliechaplinfan]

Buck Jones isn't someone I'm fimiliar with, I liked his portrayal of Lazybones, how much was lent to his performance by having a sensitive director like Borzage direct him I don't know.

I need to see the documentary next but I'm dying to Seventh Heaven again. I have some Ford silents here too, it will be interesting to compare those too. Interestingly, Madge Bellamy was in line for the role of Diane in Seventh Heaven but she hadn't really got along with Borzage during the filming of Lazybones and he requested the film be given to Janet Gaynor.

[charliechaplinfan]

Last night I got two thirds of the way through the documentary about Fox, Borzage and Murnau, this is included in the box set edition. The documentary runs for over an hour and a half and has been put together very lovingly (thank you Fox). I love the history of the early cinema, how over a relatively short period, patents were gained, trusts set up and many nickleodeons and then cinemas spring up. William Fox challenged the trust set up by Edison, he realised the only way to guarantee a product to show was to become a producer himself. He won his case and started producing pictures with Buck Jones (of Lazybones) and Theda Bara, the first vamp and a woman who brought in a lot of his fortune.

In 1925 Borzage began working for Fox after a short tenure at MGM, Borzage wanted to be free to make his pictures as he saw them and not with the interference of MGM. Also at Fox at this time were John Ford, Roaul Walsh and Allan Dwan. Fox was a directors studio. Borzage scored his first critical hit for Fox with Lazybones, it wasn't a hit commercially mainly because it's leading man Buck Jones was known for his cowboy roles. Borzage got a subtle and touching performance out of Jones, it's meant to be the best of his career.

I the thirty years since moving pictures were invented, FW Murnau was held by most to be the absolute master of his craft. He had just scored a triumph with The Last Laugh starring Emil Jannings. Murnau's cameras moved with a fluidity and beauty that hadn't been matched by any other filmmaker. His other credits include Nosferatu and Faust. Fox lured Murnau to Hollywood, Murnau was being courted by other studios but he signed with Fox because he was a man true to his word. Fox's plan was to have Murnau make the his best movies at Fox and whilst doing so train his other directors. Ford and Borzage where to learn from Murnau and were quite willing to do so.

So Murnua came to Fox, Fox held up Borzage's next production Seventh Heaven so that Murnau could make Sunrise. This was partly because both directors had chosen the same leading lady, Janet Gaynor. Murnau would make Sunrise during the day and Borzage would start his production later and work at night, poor Janet Gaynor would shuttle backwards and forwards between productions, loving the work she had been assigned to do but being tired out from doing it.

Whilst typing all this out, I realised that this is too big a subject to be contained on one thread with too many masterpieces to be watched and discussed so I've started it's own thread for those that are interested.

[feaito]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Documentary Alison. Sounds great! I wanted to buy this set badly, but I have read so many bad reviews about its lousy packaging and the discs being damaged when shipped by mail, that I've been keeping fingers crossed for a better packaging...and it's quite expensive to run the risk of getting damaged discs here in Chile.

[charliechaplinfan]

I started a thread especially dedicated to the silent work of Borzage, Murnau and Ford at Fox, I'm hoping someone else can chip in on Ford.

[charliechaplinfan]

I just left an enormous review on Seventh Heaven on this thread, if anyone fancies a look.

http://silverscreenoasis.com/oasis3/vie ... 237#p56237

[myrnaloyisdope]

Thanks for the reviews Alison, I ordered the new Borzage BFI DVDs over the holidays, and am hoping to watch them once I get back home to Montreal.

I've been watching a ton of silents the last couple weeks, I managed to finish off the Buster Keaton shorts boxset, the last couple discs in the Harold Lloyd boxset, and even through in some of the later Chaplin shorts from the WB boxset. Now having seen a very large sampling of each of the big 3's work, I can say pretty definitively that I enjoy Lloyd's work the most for general consistency and laughs, although I think it's fair to say that his persona isn't as deep or nuanced as Keaton or Chaplin. But they are all pretty exceptional, and it's a tremendous blessing that so much of their work survives and is easily accessible.

Here's the films that I've watched lately that have really resonated with me:

Tol'Able David (1921) - I think this is the first Henry King film I've seen, and I was very impressed. I'm a big Richard Barthelmess fan, and I've had the title in mind since I watched The Tingler a couple years ago (a Tol'Able David screening is the setting for the film's 'spine-tingling' finale). Barthelmess is David, the youngest of the Kinemon clan, desperate to prove his manhood, but constantly rebuffed by his family. Trouble arises when his neighbors the Hatburns are victimized by murderous outlaws who happen to be kinfolk. The trio of Hatburns and particularly Ernest Torrence are among the scummiest villains in all of silent cinema. They are just so damn unlikable, that it's very easy to root for David. Barthelmess plays the underdog very convincingly, full of pluck and youthful naivete. The climactic fight scene between David and the Hatburns is violent, compelling, and brutal. Among the best of it's kind. A wonderful picture, that I can imagine being quite the crowd pleaser.

For Heaven's Sake (1926) - Harold Lloyd does Guys and Dolls...well not really, but the film's main plot line of Lloyd trying to win the girl by first winning the souls of the shady characters in the neighborhood, reminded a lot of the Marlon Brando/Jean Simmons plot in Guys and Dolls. The film is one of Lloyd's funniest, with several tremendous sequences, my favorite being Lloyd drawing the ire of every single crook he can find and leading them on a wild goose chase through the slums and eventually to church. The finale with Lloyd trying to corral his drunken wedding party on a runaway double decker bus is the kind of stunt piece that Lloyd does so well. Crazy and daring. Maybe it was just watching it around Christmas, but I enjoyed the Christian themes of the film too, particularly the idea of Lloyd growing into a role of service after having it be thrust upon him.

Never Weaken (1921) - Another hysterical Lloyd film, easily the funniest of his shorts. Tons of great stuff packed into 29 minutes, notably Lloyd trying to round up customers for his girlfriend's chiropractor's office, by recruiting an acrobat to take ridiculous pratfalls, only for Lloyd to step in and use his miraculous healing skills. The extended suicide gag is the kind of thing that would never happen today, but the irony of Lloyd planning various means of suicide only to be distracted by the minutest of minutia is brilliantly structured. The film is best known for the finale which features Lloyd climbing on steel girders high above the city in a set-piece that pre-dates the more famous Safety Last by a couple of years. The dazed Lloyd thinking he has committed suicide only to discover his wild predicament is among the greatest things he ever did.

[charliechaplinfan]

Tol'able David is a great silent movie, I'm so glad you were able to see it. I haven't seen a lot of King's work but The White Sister 1923 is worth a look, I know TCM showed it last year, it was filmed in Naples and is a beautiful film.

I love Never Weaken, it's one of my favorite Harold Lloyd films, I don't think I've watched For Heaven's Sake before, I'm a bit hit and miss with Lloyd but I'm grateful for every film the big 3 comedians left behind.

The documentary with the Borzage and Murnau boxset is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. I'm slowly working my way through the films and started a thread dedicated to the films, I'll look forward to hearing what you think of them.

[MichiganJ]

While Lloyd didn't want to be known as a "thrill-comedian" Never Weaken is both thrilling and hilarious. Easily one of the best cinematic shorts, ever.

Watched another few Pickford/Griffith Biographs:

As It Is in Life (1910)--interesting because it starts out with a widowed father of a young curly-haired girl, who is not played by Pickford...yet. It's only after she returns from being sent away to school that Pickford, as a young adult, finally arrives. The story is about the father making sacrifices for his daughter only to have her return and find a beau of her own. Melodramatic, but with a nice ending.

The Mender of Nets (1912)--one of my favorite biographies, this has Pickford accepting the ring of a young fisherman, only to learn that the fisherman has another girlfriend. That the other girlfriend is played by Mabel Normand (!) makes the film all the more fascinating. Pickford has a terrific close-up, one of those where she walks towards the camera until her face is nearly full screen. Both women are gorgeous, by the way.

An Arcadian Maid (1910)--a fairly basic Griffith film, with Pickford toiling at her job and being duped by a faux playboy. The climax is quite exciting, though, where the conman is tossed off of a moving train. Sure it's a dummy, but it's still quite convincing.

Wilful Peggy (1910)--a delightful period film with Pickford playing a peasant who marries a rich nobleman (Henry B. Walthall). Pickford is perfect in her comedic timing as the peasant tries to fit in with society, and her feisty temper tantrums are laugh-out-loud funny. She dresses as a man so she can go to a tavern with her male cousin and Pickford is hysterical as she "flirts" with the waitresses.

Pickford's the bomb.

[charliechaplinfan]

Mary Pickford is great, have you ever seen The New York Hat? that's another great Pickford Griffith short written by Anita Loos.

[MichiganJ]

The New York Hat is pretty great, too. I think it's the last fill Pickford made with Griffith. Not a bad one to end with.

[drednm]

I just watched Griffith's 1924 Isn't Life Wonderful, about post-WW I family in Germany dealing with inflation, no jobs, and starvation. Excellent film with many Griffith touches and solid performance from Carol Dempster, Neil Hamilton, and Lupino Lane in the comic relief role. A very touching film with great music score played by Robert Israel on pinao and Galina Golovin on violin. This is Dempster's best performance.

[charliechaplinfan]

It is the one Griffith film made after Orphans of the Storm that I'm really interested in seeing, I'd heard it was Carol Dempster's best performance, the subject matter interests me greatly too.