Week Six: It (1927)

Director: Clarence G. Badger

Producer: Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky, and B.P. Schulberg

Writer: Elinor Glyn and George Marion Jr.

Cinematographer: H. Kinley Martin
Studio: Paramount

Starring: Clara Bow (Betty Lou Spence), Antonio Moreno (Cyrus T. Waltham), William Austin (Monty Montgomery), Jacqueline Gadsdon (Adela Van Norman), Pricilla Bonner (Molly), Elinor Glyn (as Herself)

You can watch the entirety of It for free on YouTube

Before You Watch the Movie
(First make sure you have read the introduction to this series)

At one point and time, there wasn’t a bigger movie star in the world than Clara Bow. Today, however, you’d be hard pressed to find any non-film obsessed person who even knows her name, let alone has seen one of her movies. Much more well-known is the cartoon character her image (along with Helen Kane) inspired: Betty Boop. Her career burned fast but none burned brighter. Bow had been working in Hollywood since the early twenties, working her way up the ladder from extra to co-star before her popularity and image exploded in 1927 with the release of six successful films, the first of which launched her to super-stardom. More than any other actress, Bow defined the look and attitude of the roaring twenties: her signature curly bob haircut was the go-to look of the decade and her tough, liberated, fun-loving attitude fit right in with the flapper girls of the Jazz age. All this comes together in her breakout film in which she plays exactly the kind of independent desirable character that made her a star. The concept of “it” is an early example of cross-promotion in film: the definition was popularized by writer Elinor Glyn (who plays herself in the film) and the film has some nice product placement as it plugs Cosmopolitan magazine and Glyn’s story about “it” in it.

Writer Elinor Glyn's cameo as herself, plugging her own real life article.

It is a movie that perfectly encapsulates it’s premise, but does so completely unintentionally. There is absolutely nothing remarkable about It, a regular romantic comedy, outside of Bow. Put a lesser actor in her role and no one would remember the film today, but with Bow it was a huge hit that was added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Archive. Clara Bow has “it” and so It is a classic movie. The twenties in particular were a time when movie stars carried the films they were in, Greta Garbo was the biggest star of the twenties and thirties, yet was in hardly any great films. She was the attraction and she made the movie a success, sometimes by her name alone. Moviegoers were loyal to their stars: if you were a fan of Rudolph Valentino, you saw his movies no matter the subject, director, or co-stars.

The film gives a number of explanations of  what “it” is:

In movie terms however, we see that “it” is what differentiates a plain movie actor who stars in a film and a true movie star. Not everyone who gets top billing in a movie is really a star and not every star a great actor nor every great actor a star. Even side characters in Hollywood movies are in the highest percentile of attractiveness yet sheer beauty is no guarantee of stardom. So if it isn’t necessarily acting talent or beauty, what is it that makes a movie star? There is no definitive solution and answers can vary from person to person. The best explanation for what a star is comes from one of the great stars herself, Mae West: “It isn’t what I do, but how I do it. It isn’t what I say, but how I say it. And how I look when I do it and say it.” Any actor could have played the character of Betty Lou but only a star like Clara Bow could transcend the role to iconic status. After this performance, Bow came to forever after be known as The “It” Girl of Hollywood and that phrase has entered into the lexicon to describe any star who’s not just a beauty but that also has an appealing personality and that indescribably something. The fifties gave us an overabundance of voluptuous blondes, from Mamie Van Doren to Diana Dors and Jayne Mansfield, but only Marilyn Monroe was an “it girl.”
You can watch the entirety of It for free on YouTube

After You Watch the Movie (Spoilers Below)

In It Clara Bow clearly has “it” in spades, she is able to stand up for herself and others multiple times, no matter the repercussions, and blows her rival, the much richer and equally one-percent attractive Adela, out of the water without even trying. 

Adela is rich and attractive... but doesn't hold a candle to shop girl Betty Lou.

Betty Lou is no high class socialite, she is equally at home in a shop girl dress as she is in an expensive evening gown. Instead of preening for the camera Bow lets her bubbly personality shine through with reactions much more like a silent comedienne than a glamour girl. If her natural charisma wasn’t enough, director Badger gets her across the line with flattering close-ups and literally putting her as the center of all the action in several scenes.

Being a movie star means you have the confidence to be funny on screen...

...and can still look great doing it.

The camera makes sure we know who the star is.

Though it is a fairly standard romantic-comedy outside of Bow, there are some important formulas in It that we will see repeated ubiquitously in future entries into the genre. For starters, the three act structure of It will become key to numerous romantic-comedies that will follow: Act 1: Boy meets and falls for Girl; Act 2: Boy loses Girl over some misunderstanding; Act 3: Boy and Girl get back together, the End. Some variation of this structure was repeated, and is still being repeated countless times. 

Act 1: Boy meets Girl.

Act 2: Boy loses Girl over misunderstanding (Molly's baby).

Act 3: Boy and Girl reunited (and we get the film's title too!)

A possible addition to Act 3 that we also see in It and many other romantic comedies is the fate of the friends. Often times Boy, when attempting to get over Girl after losing her in Act 2, will get together with Other Girl be she an old flame or new distraction, and Girl will likewise find Other Boy. Other Girl and Other Boy have absolutely no shot of ending up with Boy or Girl but we don’t want to be too cruel. Often as a complete throwaway with absolutely no previous set up, Other Boy and Other Girl will end up together, usually just hinted at in one shot or line of dialogue, but audiences can leave the theater safe in the belief that everything worked out rosily for everyone.

Though they barely interact in the movie, it is implied that Adela and Monty live happily ever after too.

Perhaps more consequential is the way It foreshadows the thirties obsession with class differences. The economy was riding high in the twenties and though there was always a divide between haves and have-nots, it was nothing like what would happen after the stock market crashed in 1929. The rich that kept their wealth saw the divide between them and the lower class swell to massive proportions. It was a case of haves and have-no-chances. Though it doesn’t dwell on the subject of the difference in class between Betty Lou and Cyrus, the film makes it fairly obvious there is a big difference in their statuses, and not just because he runs the department store that she works at. In the thirties, the differences in class and wealth would become more than just an obstacle to romance, it would create hostility and downright contempt on both sides. It is just an appetizer to the class warfare that was to come.

Betty Lou's lower class status is made apparent by comparing Cyrus' transportation...

...with Betty Lou's.

And Adela's home...

...with Betty Lou's.

Dubbed The “It” Girl after this performance, Clara Bow would become the highest paid star of the following year and go on to star in the first Best Picture winner, Wings. However, unfortunately Bow’s star didn’t stay lit forever and she didn’t enjoy the transition to sound, retiring in 1933 at just 27 years of age.

See Also

Wings (1927) dir. William A. Wellman
The first Best Picture winner is one of Bow’s best performances and features some spectacular World War I dogfighting scenes.

Flesh and the Devil (1926) dir. Clarence Brown
Greta Garbo, and her frequent co-star John Gilbert, were both massive stars that like Bow carried films to financial success and iconic status.

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