MANTRAP

Victor Fleming

F.: James Howe. Sc.: Adelaide Heilbron, Ethel Dorothy. In.: Ernest Torrence (Joe Easter), Clara Bow (Alverna), Percy Marmont (Ralph Prescott), Eugene Pallette (E. Wesson Woodbury), Tom Kennedy (Curly Evans), Josephine Crowell (Sig.ra McGavity), William Orlamond (Sig. McGavity), Charles Stevens (Lawrence Jackfish), Miss Du Pont (Sig.ra Barker), Charlot Bird (lo stenografo). P.: Famous Players-Lasky. 35mm. L.: 1769m. D.: 78’ a 20 f/s.

info_outline
T. it.: Italian title. T. int.: International title. T. alt.: Alternative title. Sog.: Story. Scen.: Screenplay. F.: Cinematography. M.: Editing. Scgf.: Set Design. Mus.: Music. Int.: Cast. Prod.: Production Company. L.: Length. D.: Running Time. f/s: Frames per second. Bn.: Black e White. Col.: Color. Da: Print source

Film Notes

 

At sixteen Clara took part in a photo competition advertised in a film magazine: while she didn’t win, she was given a consolation prize: she had been invited to take part in the film Beyond the Rainbow (1922). In films to follow, she was given increasingly more important roles. In particular, her lively spirit led her to be cast in some rather risqué parts: an unrestrained dancer (Enemies of Women, 1923), a schoolgirl who seduces her professor (Daughters of Leisure), and a gangster’s doll (Wine, 1924). She played the leading role in Black Oxen (1924), directed by Frank Lloyd, an odd story about an elderly woman who regains the body of a twenty year old with the help of plastic surgery, only to let loose in a devilish Charleston. It was there that Clara began to take on the stereotypical “flapper” role that would bring her much fame. After appearing in Kiss me Again (1925) by Lubitsch, playing the part of a French stenographer, and The plastic Age (1925) by Wesley Ruggles in the role of a titillating schoolgirl, she accepted roles in a series of films, such as Dancing mothers and Mantrap (both 1926), where she portrayed the typical “Jazz age” child. But the film that definitively consecrated her in the “flapper” role was It (1927). An entire generation of women identified with her character, free from qualms and taboos of the past. In that film-manifesto, Clara truly showed that she had “It”, that certain, magnetic ‘I don’t know what’ that attracts the opposite sex. Right after It, which would see worldwide success, Clara acted in Wings and Children of Divorce (both 1927), only for love of Gary Cooper, not caring the slightest about the miscast; she worked incessantly during those years – 14 films in 1925, 8 in 1926, and 6 in 1927 – playing parts such as manicurist, store clerk, typist, waitress, dancer, schoolgirl, anything linked to the “It-girl” model, with her red hair, dark black eyes and generously exposed body. The tabloids would have plenty of material to draw from regarding the actress’s disorderly life in following years. She withdrew at the beginnings of sound film, living out the rest of her life between stays in nursing homes and long periods resting in obscurity at her ranch. A sad epilogue of inaction for a woman who had always represented the exuberance and dynamism of youth.

Vittorio Martinelli

 

Fleming cinematographed several of Fairbanks’s films, then directed two and joined Paramount. A 1924 affair with Norman Shearer publicized his sexual prowess, but by the time he made Mantrap and met Clara, Fleming was more concerned with his career than his cocksmanship, and though his sensitivity rarely surfaced in person, its presence was increasingly apparent on film (…). The Mantrap company shot interiors at Paramount’s dilapidated Vine Street studios, then traveled to Lake Arrowhead for location work. Though Fleming was involved with actress Alice White and Clara was concentrating on her role, it didn’t take long for life to imitate art. Fleming was too much of a gentleman to mention it, but prop man Billy Kaplan knew that there was something going on between the two of them, even though Vic still had Alice White. You could see there was a relationship there.” The absence of morals clause in her contract caused Paramount to search for a substitute, and their worries were understandable. “She could flirt with a grizzly bear,” observed the New York Times of Clara in Mantrap, and as Paramount knew, he sexual provocation was not limited to her screen characters. A month earlier she had celebrated her twenty-first birthday, and already her name had been publicly linked with Roland and Savage, while her affair with Fleming was wel known within Hollywood. If anyone needed a morals clause, it was Clara. Ironically, she was the only star at Paramount without one.

David Stenn, Clara Bow runnin’ wild, New York, Doubleday, 1988

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