That certain something
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | That certain something |
| Original title | It |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1927 |
| length | 72 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Clarence G. Badger |
| script |
Hope Loring Louis B. Lighton based on a newspaper story by Elinor Glyn |
| production | Clarence G. Badger Elinor Glyn Jesse L. Lasky Adolph Zukor B. P. Schulberg |
| camera | H. Kinley Martin |
| cut | E. Lloyd Sheldon |
| occupation | |
| |
That certain something is an American silent film directed by Clarence G. Badger from 1927. In the title role, Clara Bow plays the girl with the "It" or "certain something", from which the term " it girl" arose. The plot is based on a newspaper story by Elinor Glyn . The film made Clara Bow one of the big stars in Hollywood and was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2001.
action
The setting is a department store in New York City . Cyrus Waltham Jr. Temporarily manages the family business there on behalf of his father. On his first day at work, his friend Monty surprises him with a bouquet of flowers that says “Good Luck”. Then the buddy reads out several sentences from a story from a fashion magazine that the author Elinor Glyn published there. "It" revolves around the certain esprit of a person who can be witty and funny, visually very attractive or just stunningly original. In short: about that "certain something" that someone has ... or not. Monty looks in the mirror and, in his vanity and overconfidence, immediately realizes that he has been blessed with the "It". With Cyrus, he claims, he cannot discover that certain something. The shop assistants, however, have a completely different opinion. Junior boss Cyrus Waltham is very popular with them and is downright adored. The perky Betty Lou Spence in particular is delighted with the handsome junior, but initially he shows little interest, especially since he is already in a relationship with a lady of his social class, the young, chic blonde Adela Van Norman.
Fixated by the idea of the existence of a certain something, Monty is now feverishly looking for a woman with the "it" factor among the shop assistants. And he thinks he found it with Betty Lou. After work, he accompanies her home on the bus, a rather poor three-person shared apartment, in which her friend Molly also lives with her baby. Then Monty invites Betty Lou to dinner, hoping to end up with her. She wants to, but only because they are a very noble hotel restaurant in passing has learned that plans to dine this evening "their" Cyrus there. Since Betty Lou doesn't have a nice dress for the big event in the luxury hotel, she uses an old piece to make a reasonably neat evening dress. Adela Van Norman is also pretzeled, she intends no less than to become Cyrus Waltham's future. Betty Lou's appearance hits the restaurant like a bomb. Cyrus immediately casts an eye on Monty's companion, which his own, Adela, does not go over well. Betty Lou comes up with something so that Monty introduces her to Cyrus when she leaves the restaurant. Betty Lou notices, not without cheeky irony, that he, Mr. Waltham, wouldn't recognize her the next time he met at the company.
Betty Lou wants to see her boss again as soon as possible. What would be easier than messing with a customer so that you would be summoned to the Bel Etage afterwards? That's exactly how it happens. Cyrus is surprised to see Betty Lou enter. You quickly become sympathetic. You go to the Coney Island amusement park and have a lot of fun there. Here Cyrus finally gets to know the joys of the common man, such as roller coaster rides and hot dogs. In exuberance, the boss kisses his little employee on their doorstep, whereupon he catches a resounding slap in the face. Betty Lou scurries out of the vehicle and escapes into her apartment; but not without peeping out the window again and seeing whether Cyrus is still parked in front of the house. He remains speechless in front of her apartment for a long time.
The next day, Betty Lou, who also has an oversized heart, has a completely different problem. State welfare has moved in and wants to take away her baby from Molly because the unemployed young mother is ill and, in their opinion, cannot take care of the offspring properly. Betty Lou steps in and cheekily claims that she is the mother of the toddler. Just at this moment, Monty bursts in, who has no idea that Betty Lou is putting on a show and now believes that the shop girl is already an (illegitimate) mother. He passes this “knowledge” on to his buddy Cyrus. For the department store heir, this is the shock of his life; from now on he no longer shows any interest in his subordinates. Betty Lou gets his behavior the wrong way and assumes that he is still mad about the slap. The disappointed person consistently avoids a discussion, he only offers a certain "arrangement" for tête-à-têtes beyond marriage to the woman with whom he has long been in love. This is not an option for Betty Lou, who had hoped for a lot more, and so she gives up hope and quits her job, even though she urgently needs the monthly paycheck.
When Monty visits her again a little later and brings a large food basket as a souvenir, he realizes that the baby is not Betty Lous, but Mollys. Now Betty Lou also understands the frosty behavior of Cyrus. On the one hand she wants to teach the rich snob a decent lesson, on the other hand she wants to win back Cyrus. To do this, she needs Monty's help. Cyrus Waltham has returned among his own kind and is organizing a yacht excursion. Also there: Adela Van Norman. Monty also brings a guest, a certain Miss Van Cortland. This is none other than Betty Lou, who hides on board until she leaves, so as not to be brought back to shore beforehand. Betty Lou leaves her hiding place on the high seas. Cyrus is actually still mad at her, but Betty Lou just has “that certain something” that makes him melt away. All anger vanished quickly and, although Adela was present, he proposed marriage to Betty Lou in the exuberance of his emotions. But she shouts at him that she would rather marry an errand boy from the company than him. Cyrus now learns the truth about the baby and its real mother from Monty and instructs Monty to quickly find Betty Lou, who has swept away on the yacht. Cyrus prefers to go looking for it himself, and Monty takes over the helm. He touches a fishing boat, and the sudden jerk causes both Betty Lou and Adela to fall over the railing into the water. The shop girl rescues the upper-class lady, who fidgets in the water in a panic and threatens to pull herself and Betty Lou into the depths. To put an end to her hysteria, Betty Lou knocks her unconscious with a punch. Cyrus jumps after both of them to help. Suddenly he lost sight of Betty Lou. But she clung to the lowered boat anchor and climbed it. At the anchor, the unequal pair of lovers finally come together. Between them you can only see the first two letters of the yacht's name, "Itola".
Production notes
That certain something was created in 1926 and was premiered on January 14, 1927 in Los Angeles. The New York premiere took place on February 9 of the same year, the mass start was on February 19. The film could only be seen in Germany from February 1929.
The producing Paramount Pictures paid the Hollywood long established (e.g. You shouldn't covet your neighbor's wife with Rudolph Valentino ) template author Elinor Glyn for the filming rights and conception $ 50,000, granted her credit for the template and the script adaptation and even gave her a short appearance in front of the camera (in the hotel and restaurant scene).
Glyn's colleague Carl Sandburg recalled in an article for a film magazine that the film was not slavishly adhering to Glyn's original; the most serious difference is that Glyn's original story is not about an it girl, but a man, i.e. an it boy.
The future top Hollywood star Gary Cooper made an early and rather brief appearance in the film: he played a newspaper reporter.
The film is considered a very early example of targeted product placement : the magazine Monty reads from Cyrus at the beginning of the film is Cosmopolitan (more on this, see below).
That certain something was released on DVD.
Interesting facts and backgrounds
The original title of this film gave its name to a term that has been in use from that time to the present day, relating to a certain type of woman - the so-called “It Girl” - in recent times often representatives of the celebrity demi-world (e.g. Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian ). Enno Patalas wrote in the volume Stars - History of Film Idols in relation to Clara Bow , published in 1967 : “As the embodiment of 'It', of the “ certain something ”fashioned by the author Eleanor [sic!] Glyn, she took a page by Marilyn Monroe in advance: an attraction that always amazes those who exercise it. In the gangster comedy Some Like It Hot , set in the twenties, Monroe was supposed to copy Clara's role in It down to the last detail - like playing the ukulele. "
Parallel to the appearance of the film, Elinor Glyn, who has a short scene as herself in the film, explained precisely in a sequel to the February issue (1927) of "Cosmopolitan" what, in her opinion, gives a person that "certain something", make the "it".
Leading actor Antonio Moreno was considered Glyn's Hollywood darling in the 1920s. Shortly before, the author had insisted that the attractive Spaniard be given the lead role in the film she wrote "Love's Blindness" (1926). In Glyn's opinion, there were only four Hollywood personalities with that “certain something” at the time: Clara Bow, Antonio Moreno, the doorman of the Ambassador Hotel and Rex, King of the Wild Horses, a horse from B- Silent films.
Since that film, Clara Bow has been considered the epitome of the it girl as well as flappers , another fad of the 1920s. In that connection , the great people of the film lexicon : "They knew how to move and could both pouting girl and the seductive child-woman and the mundane-infamous 'femme fatale' embody. Clara Bow, who was called 'the Brooklyn Bonfire', was the in-girl of the time, a little crazy and very independent, who exuded vital and at the same time innocent teenage sex, with the facial expressions and gestures of an attractive, mature woman. Clara Bow had what was called that 'certain something' in those years, the "It", which was also the name of one of her most popular films. Parallel to her cinema career and the 'flapper' reputation of a boisterous tomboy, she also made headlines with her extensively published private life. "
Reviews
In the New York Times , star critic Mordaunt Hall dealt with It . There it said on February 13, 1927: “Elinor Glyns name and the title, 'It', are in themselves a valuable introduction to a production. Adding to those virtues in this particular short titled film is the attractive Clara Bow, not exactly unknown for her charm. As a result, any story would serve such a film with these attributes, and the producers seem to have not abandoned this path of success to create a vehicle for which they seek the ever-popular, old theme: a shop girl's romance with her employer. 'It' refers to it more than once, and the author introduces two marginal figures to us as a pair of 'it-less' 'its'. "
Paimann's film lists summed up: “The subject deals with a much-used topic, but, with the exception of small improbabilities, is very nicely done, especially at the end it is funny and effective. Clara Bow compensates for her somewhat less favorable appearance this time with a good game, her partner (Moreno) is also very good. The direction, presentation and photography are clean. ”The Movie & Video Guide wrote about the film:“ Bow is stunning in this otherwise ordinary story of a lively department store saleswoman with a 'gold digger' attitude who keeps an eye on her attractive boss (Antonio Moreno). "
Halliwell's Film Guide characterized the film as follows: "A quick and funny parody in its day, and the film has not been too bad for the past few years".
Individual evidence
- ↑ Josef von Sternberg shot some scenes without, however, being given any names
- ↑ cf. Joe Morella and Edward Epstein: The 'It' Girl. The Incredible Story of Clara Bow. Delacorte Press 1976, p. 85, ISBN 0-440-04127-9
- ^ The Movies Are: Carl Sandburg's Film Reviews and Essays, 1920-1928; Article dated February 11, 1927. Lake Claremont Press, 2000
- ↑ Enno Patalas: Stars - History of the film idols. Fischer Bücherei, Hamburg 1967. p. 66
- ↑ DeWitt Bodeen : More From Hollywood. The Career of 15 Great American Stars. New York / London 1977, p. 154. There it says in the original: “Glyn had asseverated that in her opinion only four Hollywood personalities had the quality she called 'It': Clara Bow, Antonio Moreno, the doorman of the Ambassador Hotel, and Rex, King of the Wild Horses. Paramount couldn't do much about the Ambassador Hotel doorman or the stallion known as 'Rex', but they did cast Moreno opposite Clara Bow in It , Bow's first starring vehicle. "
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 496.
- ↑ full review of It in The New York Times
- ↑ In the original: “ELINOR GLYN'S name and the title, 'It,' are in themselves a valuable start to a production. Added to these virtues, in this particular photoplay of the brief appellation, there is the attractive Clara Bow, who is not unknown for her charm. Any story would thus serve for a film with these attributes, and the producers do not seem to have gone far out of their way to get a vehicle, for they have that dear old theme, the shop-girl's romance with her employer. 'It' is referred to more than once and the title writer introduces two minor characters as "just a couple of itless its."
- ↑ That certain something in Paimann's film lists ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 651.
- ↑ In the original: "Bow is dazzling in this otherwise ordinary tale of a spirited, gold-digging department-store salesgirl with designs on her handsome boss (Antonio Moreno)."
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, pp. 524 f.
- ↑ In the original: "In it's day a fast and funny spoof, and the years have not dealt too unkindly with it."
Web links
- That certain something in the Internet Movie Database (English)