It (V.O. “It”)
USA, 1927
Director: Clarence Badger and Josef von Sternberg (uncredited)
Script: Hope Loring, Louis D. Lighton
Main actors: Clara Bow, Antonio Moreno, William Austin
Genre: Romantic comedy
Plot
Millionaire Cyrus Waltham runs a department store. His friend Monty visits him in his office and in a copy of Cosmopolitan magazine he finds an article of his interest, about the book “It” by the author Elinor Glyn. “It” consists of a great personal magnetism, capable of exerting enormous attraction on the opposite sex. It is a gift, something naturally possessed. Monty looks in the mirror and thinks that he is gifted with “it”, while his millionaire friend, according to him, lacks this charisma. But he couldn’t be more wrong. All the female employees at the mall have a crush on the handsome Cyrus Waltham.
Monty notices one of them, Betty, and invites her to dinner. The girl accepts, and asks to go to the Ritz no less (as she knows she’ll find Cyrus there). Betty has taken in a friend who has a baby and can’t pay her rent.
Cyrus has a childhood friend, Adele, who is under the illusion that the millionaire will one day propose to her. It is with her and her mother that Cyrus goes to dinner at the Ritz. There they meet Monty and Betty. Betty keeps looking at the table where the tycoon is sitting, completely ignoring the man who invited her there. And Cyrus also seems to be attracted by the flirtatious employee (whom he had not noticed until then)…
From then on, a series of misunderstandings will be unleashed, in which Betty’s friend, whom she has taken into a house with her son, will also come into play. Molly, the unfortunate single mother, is unemployed and unable to pay her rent. When the social workers try to take the baby away, Betty intervenes by saying that the child is hers, and that she can keep it because she works at the Waltham Mall. From then on, with that subplot built in, the entanglements surrounding Betty, Cyrus and Monty will escalate.
The climax will come during a yacht trip, in which the main characters will coincide…
Comment
A pleasant surprise this unknown film, highly entertaining, and that deals with a very fashionable topic nowadays, the “law of attraction” (particularly in the context of intersexual relationships). Long before Rhonda Byrne, the author of the best-seller “The Secret” was born, Elinor Glynn, a writer completely unknown to me until now, published a book about this secret, simply called “It”.
This “It” has nothing to do with Stephen King’s novel and its corresponding adaptations. Instead of a horror movie, this is a romantic comedy. But far from falling into the typical superficiality of the genre, it is very interesting at all levels.
Although such a secret in this film is limited to the theme of flirting, it is obvious that it is only part of something much bigger and deeper, which we could call charisma. Mrs. Glynn, who has a cameo in the film playing herself, says that “it” is, in a nutshell, “great self-confidence and at the same time, indifference to what others think of you.” As we can see from this definition, the “it” is beyond the concrete and tangible; it is not necessarily the set of qualities that make a person attractive, but something that includes them.
Cyrus is not a playboy, but he is attractive to women without even trying. His iron self-confidence has the properties of a magnet for women. On the other hand, his friend Monty, although he is neither insecure nor faint-hearted, becomes Betty’s simp, without realizing that she is just using him. Monty is the stereotypical guy in the friendzone, and the humorous “sidekick”.
Poor Monty is truly a simp. It is tragicomic to see how Betty treats him and takes advantage of him. She is a real femme fatale, who plays with men as she pleases (shamelessly using one and playing hard to get with the other).
For a romantic comedy it is extremely interesting, as it moves away from the hackneyed clichés that proliferate in the most modern films of that genre. No cheesiness. The film undoubtedly has a great psychological depth.
The film was considered lost for decades, until a copy appeared in Prague in the 1960s. Cyrus Waltham is played by the Spanish actor Antonio Moreno, who at a very young age had emigrated to the USA, where he developed his film career. He became a celebrity in silent films, rivaling Rudolph Valentino. In the sound stage of cinema he appears in “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” (Jack Arnold, 1954).
Get It HERE!
(This is an affiliate link. I may earn a commission if you purchase through these link, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)