When people think of silent movie actresses, Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish often spring to mind.  They were two big names to be sure, but there were many other actresses who achieved stardom yet are all but forgotten today.  One such star is Clara Bow.  Clara was a short but dynamic young actress who often played sparkling and energetic heroines in her movies.  Her upbeat attitude and flirtatious nature came to personify the roaring twenties and she epitomized the happy-go-lucky flapper.  Though she was a very popular star, receiving over 40,000 fan letters a month, her career was short, marred by weak movies with poor scripts.  Ironically, the low quality movies that she was assigned to were mostly due to her strong screen personality.  The producers knew that she could carry a weak picture: just put her into any movie, and she'd make it shine.  Though she made a lot of meager pictures, one of her better films, and the one that garner her the most fame, was 1927's It¹.  Milestone Films has recently released a DVD of this romantic comedy.

This movie was basically a vehicle to promote author Elinor Glyn, (billed as Madame Elinor Glyn in the credits) and to cash in on current trends.  Glyn had written an article where she talked about the elusive quality that some people have, that she termed 'it.'  In her cameo in the movie, Glyn defines 'it' as "a self-confidence and indifference to whether you are pleasing or not, and something in you that gives the impression that you are not all cold." in other words, sex appeal.  It was a stroke of genius to come up with a term for sex that wouldn't cause the censors to heavily edit a film, and Glyn was justly awarded her 15 minutes of fame.  But the movie did more for Clara Bow than it did for Glyn.  Forever after, Bow was known as "the it girl" and came to personify the free spirited women of the day.

Betty Lou Spence (Clara Bow) is a clerk in Waltham's department store.  One day she and her coworkers are discussing Glyn's article and hypothesizing who has 'it' when the owner's son, Cyrus Waltham Jr. (Antonio Moreno,) walks by.  The girls all agree that the young handsome millionaire just oozes 'it.'  Cyrus's friend, comic relief Monty Montgomery (William Austin) spots Betty and decides that she also has the elusive quality and arranges to meet her.  Monty talks her into dinner at the Ritz, where they run into Cyrus and his girlfriend Adela (wonderfully played by Jacqueline Gadsden.  She is beautiful, yet totally boring, clearly illustrating that 'it' is not mere physical attractiveness.)  Monty finally notices Betty, and is struck by her.  In a playful mood, Betty makes a bet with Cyrus.  She wagers that he won't recognize her the next time they meet.  He takes her up on the bet.

The next day at the store, Betty gets in trouble with an unreasonable customer.  Cyrus handles the situation and tells the floor manager to send the offending clerk to see him in his office.  When Betty arrives, he starts lecturing her about customer service, but stops half way through when he recognizes her.  He admits that he lost the bet, and agrees to take her out to dinner that evening.  But instead of a fancy meal at an expensive restaurant, Betty takes Cyrus to Coney Island where they eat hot dogs and have fun on the rides.  After an enjoyable evening, Cyrus takes Betty home and gets slapped when he tries to kiss her good night.  After all, Betty may be flirtatious, but she's still a respectable woman.

Betty is a kind-hearted person.  She has a friend Molly (Priscilla Bonner) who is sick and has had a child out of wedlock.  Betty lets Molly and her child live with her and she supports the pair.  But when a group of civic-minded women deem Molly too sick and poor to care for her child, they try to take the infant away from her.  Betty comes to the rescue, arriving just in time to claim that the child is hers.  Since Betty has a job, and isn't ill, they have no reason to remove the child.  This good dead comes back to haunt Betty though.  The women got to the store to verify her employment, and let Cyrus know that she is an unmarried mother.  Though Cyrus loves Betty by now, he knows that he could never marry a soiled woman, and breaks up with her.  But Betty isn't the type who will take being jilted sitting down, and creates a plan to win him back.
 
This is just a fun movie.  The plot stays light hearted, even through the more serious parts, and never devolves into a melodrama, the way so many silent movies did.  This is a romantic comedy, and, though there isn't any slapstick, there are a lot of amusing situations.  The jokes and humor are spread evenly throughout the movie, with just the right amount of drama to make the plot interesting.   The film flows very well, with few dry spots.

Clara Bow does a fantastic job in this film.  She has a tremendous amount of screen presence.  Even today she looks attractive and appealing.  Many sex symbols from 75 years ago don't have the same impact today, but Bow is so cute and energetic that she steals every scene that she's in.  Her effervescence is infectious and you can't help cheering her through the film.  This is a highly enjoyable film.
 

Audio:

The stereo music track was surprisingly full and rich.  The movie had a full orchestra score, which was composed by Carl Davis.  He has scored many silent movies, and he does a very good job with this one.  The music fits the tone and mood of the scenes and greatly accentuates the film.  The sound quality is very good, with the string sounding clear and the horns full.  This is an excellent sounding disc.

Video:

This movie is presented with a 1.33:1 aspect ratio as it was originally filmed.  The image quality was excellent for a film of this age.  Photoplay Productions and Milestone have done a wonderful job with this DVD.  The contrast is excellent, and the detail is superb.  The film has a full range of gray tones.  The transfer was made from a 35mm print that had some print damage, but not much.  There were some scratches and dirt, but the vast majority of the film was very clean.   This is a very good looking DVD.

The Extras:

This movie includes an audio commentary by Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies at Wesleyan University.  Dr. Basinger creates a very good alternate audio track.  She gives biographies of the supporting actors, in addition to Clara Bow, and talks about the standards of the time.  Though it feels like she is reading from a script at times, and her delivery is flat, her enjoyment of the movie and interest in Clara Bow shines through.  The commentary isn't dry and scholarly, and contains a good deal of information.  I enjoyed listening to it.

The Still Gallery is a minute and a half reel of production stills, advertisements and theater posters for the movie.

There is also an unpublished article, circa 1956, where director, Clarence G. Badger, reminiscences about the making of the film.  This is a .pdf file that is accessible with a computer equipped with a DVD-Rom drive.  It is well worth reading, as Badger talks about getting Madame Elinor Glyn to appear in the film, and relates some anecdotes about Clara Bow.

Final Thoughts:

There are a lot of silent movies that just don't hold up that well when viewed today.  Though I'm a big fan of early movies, I admit that many have casts that over act, there are many plots that quickly turn into sappy melodramas, and the pacing is often slow.  But this movie avoids all those pitfalls and manages to be very entertaining even over 75 years after it was initially released.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen the Kino version of this movie, and so I can't compare the two.  I can say that I am very happy with the Milestone DVD.  The picture quality is very good, and there digital encoding was well done.  The orchestral soundtrack was very well matched to the picture, and sounded full and clear.   It is a nice, entertaining film with a very good presentation, that makes it easy to rate as highly recommended.

1)  Clara was also had a lead part in Wings, which is probably how most movie fans know her today.  But this role was a departure from the vivacious young go-getter that she usually played.