It (1927)

☆ ☆ ½

It (1927) – C. Badger

My consumption of silent film has primarily been composed of the amazing classics (Murnau, Keaton, Eisenstein, and so on).  So, stumbling into more run-of-the-mill fare is a bit of a let-down.  Of course, “It” was a big hit and helped to spur along the stardom of Clara Bow, a free and easy sex symbol of the 1920s.  She is rather vivacious here but the film is hardly lurid or ribald.  Bow plays a shopgirl with designs on the wealthy boss and she manages to snare him.  En route, there is a bit of a problem when he accidentally believes she is a single mother to a “fatherless” child.  The stigma is palpable but Bow actually manages to get the cad to propose to her even though he thinks she has a baby to support before she tells him the truth.  Nothing too flash here in the direction or acting (apart from Bow’s obvious star turn).  Bow went on to a series of scandals and her popularity declined (Kenneth Anger tells all in Hollywood Babylon).