Known as ‘The It Girl’, Clara Bow declared Mantrap as her personal favourite of all the silent films she starred in. Oozing sex appeal, Bow’s movies were box-office gold and her fan base was large. Off-screen, the Brooklyn-born actress struggled with mental health, scandal and intrusive media attention. 

Film historian, critic and director of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, Jay Weissberg is a passionate advocate for Mantrap (directed in 1926 by Victor Fleming) and has written the notes for this HippFest screening which takes place with live piano from Neil Brand. Quoting from the 1933 World Film Encyclopaedia, Weissberg explains how telling it was that the first line in her biography stated ‘she has perhaps received more notoriety during her short career than any star in Hollywood.’ In Mantrap, Bow plays city girl Alverna whose ‘unsteadying eyes’ and flirtatious ways provide the pivotal drama of this surprisingly progressive battle-of-the-sexes comedy. Moving to the rural mountains she becomes bored with country life and soon longs for a more sophisticated lifestyle.

There has also been a recent spark of interest in the actress following Taylor Swift’s track listing release for her upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department, with one of the songs named after the famous flapper. Maybe Swift will celebrate a woman who rejected convention and upturned the ritual of courtship in her films. ‘There is such an unapologetic sexuality about Clara Bow in Mantrap,’ notes Weissberg. ‘Even her husband in the film, played by Ernest Torrence, knows what she needs and he’s happy to give her the space to get it; that’s almost unheard of in that period.’

While Weissberg can’t remember when he first saw Bow on screen, he does recall being completely blown away. ‘I’d never seen somebody who had that kind of energy before and was so remarkably free. And that was very much a part of her character in Mantrap. We know that she was dealing with a tremendous amount of demons and she deliberately put on a show. She needed to do that in order for it to disguise what was going on within her soul.’

Mantrap, The Hippodrome, Bo’ness, Friday 22 March, as part of HippFest.