I watched my first silent film, a 1927 romantic comedy starring Clara Bow, the It Girl of the flapper era.
I caught small snippets of various silent movies here and there over the years, but the closest I ever came to watching one in full was the 2011 Oscar-winning The Artist. Even though I love old Hollywood, silent films are a bit of a hard sell; too culturally removed from the modern times, too clunky and naive. I finally got interested after one of my favourite YouTube channels, Be Kind Rewind, did a video about Clara Bow, the leading sex symbol of her time and the original It Girl.
The video put it frankly that though Hollywood was very keen on selling Clara Bow to the audiences, it wasn’t really interested in putting her in great movies. It did single out “It” as a huge hit that launched Bow into top-tier stardom, so after some searching I tracked down a restored version with the original piano score. It’s not by any means a great movie, but it is a great vehicle for Bow’s talent and shockingly modern appeal that still works nearly a century on.
“It” is based on a novella by Elinor Glyn, British author who wrote romantic fiction considered scandalous and saucy for its time. It popularised the idea of “it”, that undefinable quality that makes one irresistible to the opposite sex; the movie wants this idea to live rent-free in your head so badly, it even has a celebrity cameo from Glyn herself. All of this is blatantly meant by the movie to sell the hell out of its leading lady, and luckily Clara Bow definitely did have “it” in spades.
The minimum-effort romantic plot is not the strongest selling point here. A beautiful but poor shop girl Betty Lou has a thing for dashingly handsome Cyrus Waltham (Antonio Moreno), son of the owner of the department store where she works. Cyrus won’t notice Betty Lou, but she catches the attention of his best friend Monty (William Austin, whose extremely pale eyes make him look a tad demonic). Betty Lou uses Monty to get closer to her dream man, and it works like a charm, until major miscommunication arises over the fatherless child belonging to Betty Lou’s roommate and friend. My oh my, can these two crazy kids work it out?
The movie is held together almost entirely by the charisma and energy of its magnetic star who embodies the perfect flapper girl: high-spirited, carefree, living in the moment, sexy but with the morals still firmly in place. If you’re a young woman watching this, Betty Lou is the kind of fun loyal pal any girl would love to have. Clara Bow’s still-sparkling presence makes her feel more vivid and alive than anyone else around her, and the camera makes the most of her huge, expressive dark eyes. A lot of silent film acting can feel mannered and studied, but Bow’s movements and mannerisms feel fresh and spontaneous and just utterly charming. Without Clara Bow, “It” is dated, mundane lightweight fluff, with her in it I enjoyed the movie a great deal.
P.S. I love to observe the bygone styles and fashions in the old movies, and the abundance of short hair on young women in this movie did warm my heart. Bring back the bob haircut!
P.P.S. I wish I had a chance to somehow incorporate “Just you wait – I’ll take the snap out of your garters yet!” into my everyday conversation. Despite my criticism of the plot, there’s at least some snappy dialogue to be found in the title cards.
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