Lazybones (1935) User Reviews

Cheap & Cheerful

[ukjf · 6/10 · 22 June 2008]

An example of a "Quota Quickie" - one of the hundreds of low-budget B movies that British studios churned out to receive government funding between 1927-1937.

Making allowances for the financial and time constraints this film was clearly made under (many of the "Quota Quickie" films were shot around the working schedules of actors who were simultaneously engaged in theatrical work), the film still falls a bit short due to a weak script and (unsurprisingly) rather stagy performances by the cast. On the plus side, the film does have quite an engaging plot and rattles along at a cheery pace.

In conclusion, Lazybones is worth viewing for 3 reasons: 1) a fantastic little cameo appearance by the wonderful British character actor Miles Malleson 2) for Michael Powell fans to catch his early directorial work 3) for Alfred Hitchcock fans to realise just how far ahead of the game he was! (The 39 Steps was released in the same year)

Enjoyable...though hardly an American!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 17 February 2021]

Sir Reginald Ford (Ian Hunter) is a lazy baronet who, like many of the gentry, has never worked a day in his life. This is a serious problem as his family is practically bankrupt. His siblings are excited, however, at the prospect of him marrying a rich American heiress (Claire Luce)...though she turns out to be broke as well! Now that she's told Reginald this, he asks her to marry him, as he didn't want to marry her just for her fortune.

After marrying, Reginald has a plan for employment--to have an agency that finds real jobs for broke gentry like himself. But there's a fly in the marital ointment...his new wife has a sleazy crook as a friend...and her involvement with him could prove embarrassing.

The acting is much better than the movie itself. Now it isn't that the movie is bad, but the film seemed to go in two directions at once--about the marriage AND the sleazy friend. I think the film might have been better without him. Still, it's an enjoyable little film....even though the 'American' lady sound about as American as Pancho Villa!

somewhat disappointing curio

[rogierr · 17 July 2001]

I did never see anything by Powell (nor by longtime collaborator Emeric Pressburger) but I figure I couldn't have a worse start than this one. Technically interesting, but the acting is unbelievably terrible and the supposed jokes diffuse and float away before they have the chance to reach your speakers :-( and that's not due to the lack of music (apart from the begintitles and the endscene). Let's just say Powell needed MORE than 5 years to learn how to handle actors AND sound. Probably interesting for Powell-completists and/or if you can be satisfied with nice cinematography (by Arthur Crabtree) alone. If you want the tape (VHS-PAL) I'll send it over gladly ;-)

Lazybones is a Typical Quota Quickie

[Gabbo · 28 October 2022]

To fend off American Film Studio competition and influence British parliament passed a film act requiring a minimum fraction of films exhibited in Britain to be produced in Britain. To comply with the law, American studios made very cheap films in Britain to show at off hours in order to have the legal right to exhibit the profitable American "A" pictures. Lazybones in an example of this type of film dubbed a QUOTA QUICKIE.

I learned of this film from an episode of a British TV series (listed below) which excerpted this film to illustrate the regulation scheme that sustained the production of these Quota Quickies by British producers for American studios.

Calling these "B" movies is really missing the point. B movies were made to fill out a program at studio discretion. Quota Quickies were made and shown ONLY to satisfy British regulations and were never intended to show outside Britain. Often these QQs played while the lights were up and the cleaning staff was doing the overnight cleaning.

I learned about this practice from a British program on YouTube called, An Ocean Apart Episode #2 (Home in Pasadena).

Quota Quickies air from 32:45 to 36:30.

Lazybones is shown at 34:20.