Period review of "It"

IT (1927)

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/131028/It/overview

This article gives a plot summary of the movie and the “it” factor and the movie’s influence on the two female stars, Clara Bow and Priscilla Bonner’s careers. According to this article, IT was one of the best publicity campaigns in Hollywood; this makes sense because the movie was very successful and broke box office records (IT 1927 Wikipedia). The concept is also very simple and catchy, so I’m not surprised that everyone was using that term after the movie. As a code for overwhelming sex appeal, this term was used frequently after the debut of the film. As I was flipping through the Photoplay magazine of 1929/ 1930s, there were many articles about the “it” factor and who in Hollywood has it. This shows that the movie introduced popular trends even past its release. It’s amazing how something that came from the movie was able to have such a wide impact in real life.

Apparently, Clara Bow rose to stardom that year through her appearance in IT and was nicknamed “The IT Girl.” She was loved not only because of her charm but also because she showed “relatively generous amount of skin” for that time. (IT, filmcritic.com) It also solidified Bow’s role as a leading sex symbol in the 1920s. As the article reads, “Despite its rather trite Cinderella plot, IT magnificently demonstrates why Bow's guileless flapper came to define an entire decade.” However, the article also talks about Bow’s decline, public troubles and career destruction. After researching further, I learned that Bow retired from acting in 1933 after marrying Rex Bell, a lieutenant governor of Nevada. She had many mental health issues following her retirement. That is not what I expected. She had a lot of potential and the public was crazy about her.

Priscilla Bonner on the other hand, acting as Bow’s single mother roommate, said she lost her chance at true Hollywood stardom after doing IT. The article never went into detail why but I can see how Clara Bow did overshadow her performance and the movie might have defined Bonner as a character who doesn’t possess the “it” factor. After IT, Bonner did numerous other films, but stopped completely in 1929. It seems like both actresses reached their peak in IT and went downhill after its release.