It (1927)
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It Movie Review
It is a 1927 silent romantic comedy film which is a great Clara Bow vehicle. She is excellent in the film which is itself not great.
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“I’m sorry, but a girl has to do that.
You know how things are“
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The story of a shop girl who wants to seduce a handsome, wealthy boss is fairly typical by this point. I will give the movie credit for possibly being one of the first films to do this story and it is one of the first romantic comedies, but still it felt overly familiar and it lacked some sort of special oomph in the storytelling department to take it to the next level.
The characters are also fairly straight and typical with the only exception being the protagonist who is memorable. I really liked the performances here, but of course Clara Bow is the highlight and the biggest reason to see this movie for sure.
She excelled in portraying this spunky, energetic and very attractive girl and I could see why men love her and why women want to be her friends. The film explores the concept of “It” which is a special quality of possessing a magnetic force and it was just such a fabulous choice to cast Bow in this role as she really embodies that quality and is magnetic from start to finish here. I loved her look, her dresses and especially her movements and her facial expressions. She really gave a standout performance.
She also made It a very modern movie, much more modern than most of the movies from the twenties and it aged so well that it can be enjoyed a lot even in this day. It surely is a prototype of a romantic comedy as it has all of those ingredients, some great and some annoying.
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The film is well directed and paced and it looks great and very modern and quick in pace and in character interactions. I just loved the first half so much with all the preparations for the dinner and especially the roller coaster scene was so wonderful that it was really disappointing to see the second half get reduced to unnecessary melodrama (the subplot with the baby was not needed honestly), typical complications and misunderstandings and an overly bombastic, though still fun and memorable spectacle finale.
It is mainly a major Clara Bow vehicle and she certainly embodies the titular concept perfectly with her beautiful looks and a spunky personality while also giving just a fabulous performance as a whole. I loved the first half as it had some wonderful scenes such as that preparation for dinner as well as a roller coaster scene, but the second half was reduced to typical misunderstandings and melodrama a bit too much and although the spectacle ending is fun, it was still too bombastic. It is certainly a very influential romantic comedy for better and for worse.
