"It" Review

 

by Daniel White

Though she made films for other studios, I always associate Clara Bow with Paramount Pictures. In order to celebrate the birthday of Adolph Zukor, the founder of that prestigious institution (January 7, 1873 - June 10, 1976), I decided to watch "The It Girl" in Paramount's 'It'.

Our Clara stars as Betty Lou, a vivacious, peppy shop girl at Waltham's department store, the world's largest (it says so at the beginning of the flick, so it must be true!). A curvy little creature sporting spit-curls and plenty of razzamatazz, Betty Lou spots the son of the store's owner (Antonio Moreno) and immediately sets her cap on landing him. That's pretty much it in 'It', but with La Bow brandishing her particular brand of movie magic, you really don't need much more. Spirited, infectious and fun, it's easy to see why Clara Bow was the biggest thing in movies just prior to the advent of sound. Unaffected and high-spirited, her seeming limitless energy spills right off the screen. You cinema elites may choose to worship at the altar of Louise Brooks but I'm a Bow man, through and through.

Unfortunately, Clara may have had the charisma and sparkle to be a star but she didn't have the stamina. Plagued by mental health issues possibly inherited from her mother, she would suffer a nervous breakdown in 1931. And though she transitioned successfully to talkies, she never embraced the new medium, retiring after making her last movie, Hoopla, in 1933. In a town where the tales of Women Of Many Woes are too familiar, Clara Bow's is one of the saddest. Fortunately, a respectable amount of her films, both silent and sound survive, so the incandescent light that is Clara Bow will be with us as long as they are.

Directed by Clarence Badger (with uncredited work by Josef von Sternberg) and a surprise cameo by the author of It, Madame Elinor Glyn (as she is billed in the credits), 'It' is available on YouTube.