Kritiken (1)
Based solely on the first impression, Clara Bow plays the dictionary definition of a girl who has “it” and who wants “it” (the concept of the “it girl” arose from this film). She is turned into a sex object personifying That Which Every Heterosexual Man Desires mainly by men who are incapable of accepting her as anything other than a cute imp. A longer-term relationship with such a girl just for fun is unthinkable for them. If she became their wife or the mother of their child, she would lose “it” and would no longer be the unattainable personification of secret desires without her own subjectivity (the id would turn into the ego, if you like). Therefore, Cyrus loses interest when he sees her as a mother (though a fake mother, which he doesn’t know). The rejected Lou returns to her life as an obsessive thought (of “it”), as a bad conscience, in order to take revenge by reversing roles. The hunted newly becomes the hunter. Lou realises that her power consists in the fact that she can refuse what a man desires without being his girlfriend (whether at work, where she receives money from a man for her various services, or outside of it). This is just the mutual recognition that without “it”, they are free, not controlled by lust, not forced to play the expected roles, and capable of a fulfilling relationship. With its ambiguous intertitles, the amount of exposed (female) skin and the open thematisation of sexuality, It is raunchy entertainment that rivals the pre-Code films of the talkie era. 75%
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