Genre:
Comedy Drama
Release Date: 08/06/2002
Run Time: 137 Minutes
Flags: Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Kino
Contrary to popular belief,
Clara Bow was already
Paramount's biggest box-office draw when she starred in this delightful rags-to-riches comedy. But
It, from the fertile mind of bizarre best-selling author
Elinor Glyn, remains perhaps the quintessential
Bow picture. Not that the story of a poor shopgirl falling for her rich employer was anything new (by 1927,
Bow could play that role in her sleep), but
It came complete with one of the best publicity campaigns in Hollywood history.
Glyn herself publicly pointed to
Bow as the personification of
It, "that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force."
Paramount made sure that
Glyn's lofty description of the word sunk in and even convinced the author to explain
It in the film to leading man
Antonio Moreno (who, according to
Glyn, simply oozed
It as well). The lightweight comedy behind all this hoopla centered on little Betty Lou Spence, a vivacious salesgirl invited to dinner at the Ritz by foppish wastrel and self-described "old fruit" "Monty" Montgomery (
William Austin in one of those roles later personified by
Edward Everett Horton). Betty is not paying attention to her dinner companion, however, but is ogling department store heir Cyrus Waltham (
Moreno). He notices her too, and takes the salesgirl on a whirlwind tour of Coney Island. But when Betty is mistakenly assumed to be the unmarried mother of an infant (actually her roommate Molly's), stern Cyrus no longer sees her as proper marriage material. Betty, of course, gets her man in the end and Waltham's snooty girlfriend ("other woman" specialist
Jacqueline Gadsden) ends up in the drink. Delivering all the vivacious punch expected of a
Bow comedy,
It takes time out for a couple of rather poignant scenes. With the hindsight that Brooklyn's own
Bow was never fully accepted by Hollywood society despite her stardom, it is touching to watch Betty being ostracized at the snobbish Ritz; and
Bow is never more affecting than when she realizes that
Moreno is offering diamonds and pearls instead of marriage.
Priscilla Bonner, as
Bow's drab, single-mother roommate, adds a touch of realism to her brief role, enviously observing Betty's frivolity. If
It only added to
Bow's brilliant success, the film did little for the intelligent
Bonner. To the end of her life,
Bonner maintained that accepting featured billing in
It lost her any chance of true stardom. A very young
Gary Cooper, has a bit as a reporter and director
Josef Von Sternberg reputedly took over for
Clarence Badger during a brief illness. Despite its rather trite
Cinderella plot,
It magnificently demonstrates why
Bow's guileless flapper came to define an entire decade. It is heartbreaking to realize that her decline had already set in, and
Bow's very public troubles and eventual career destruction were lurking right around the corner!
~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
