Clara Bow

A 1929 pre-Code circus drama starring Clara Bow as a bareback rider caught between two men. Directed by Lothar Mendes, the film follows Patricia, a circus performer in love with tightrope walker Larry Lee, who is already partnered with the older Zara Flynn. When Larry leaves the circus for a society woman, Patricia and Zara are left to pick up the pieces. This was Clara Bow's second talking picture and the first Hollywood film for Kay Francis, who would become one of the biggest stars of the 1930s. The production used 48 aerial ballet artists and 200 clowns for its circus sequences. Published in 1929, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025.

Drama · Romance

A 1927 American silent romantic comedy directed by Dorothy Arzner, starring Clara Bow and Charles "Buddy" Rogers. In Paris, Robert de Belleconte (Rogers), the son of a nobleman, is betrothed in infancy to Simone de Villeneuve. Seventeen years later, he meets American tourist Nancy Worthington (Bow), and they are accidentally locked in a museum overnight. By morning, they are in love — but Robert confesses his arranged engagement, and Nancy leaves in tears. Not one to give up easily, Nancy stages a false automobile wreck to gain entrance to the Belleconte chateau and schemes to break the engagement. Directed by Dorothy Arzner, one of Hollywood's pioneering women directors. The Library of Congress holds an incomplete print, missing two of six reels.

Comedy · Romance

It is the film that coined the phrase "It girl" and made Clara Bow the embodiment of the 1920s flapper. She plays a department store salesgirl with plenty of "It", that magnetic self-confidence author Elinor Glyn defined on screen, who sets her sights on the store's handsome young owner. Bow's charm carries the whole picture, and the film was a sensation when it was released. Long considered lost, a print surfaced in Prague in the 1960s, and the Library of Congress selected It for the National Film Registry. The film's copyright was renewed in 1954 and expired on January 1, 2023, when it entered the public domain.

Comedy · Romance · Silent

A silent comedy-drama directed by Victor Fleming, based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis. Clara Bow stars as Alverna, a restless manicurist from Minneapolis who marries a backwoods trader (Ernest Torrence) to escape city life, only to find herself bored in the wilderness. When a city lawyer (Percy Marmont) arrives on a fishing trip, Alverna sees her chance to return to civilization—with disastrous results. The film showcases Bow at the height of her "It Girl" fame, her magnetic energy and modern sensibility clashing with the primitive frontier setting. Fleming's direction captures both the beauty of the Canadian wilderness and the claustrophobia of a love triangle with no easy exit. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Drama · Silent

A 1925 American silent romantic comedy directed by Wesley Ruggles, starring Clara Bow, Donald Keith, and Gilbert Roland. Based on Percy Marks's best-selling 1924 novel about college life at a fictional "Sanford College," the film follows Hugh Carver, a freshman and championship runner who falls for Cynthia Day (Bow), a popular party girl, and finds it impossible to please her while keeping up with his studies and athletic training. The Plastic Age was Clara Bow's first major hit and helped jumpstart her meteoric rise to stardom. The film features early uncredited appearances by Clark Gable, Janet Gaynor, and Carole Lombard.

Comedy · Romance

A 1930 American pre-Code romantic comedy directed by Frank Tuttle for Paramount, starring Clara Bow and Fredric March. Ruby Nolan (Bow) is a counter girl at a San Diego drugstore with a sailor boyfriend on every ship. When the competing sailors try to set her up with ace gunner "Bull's-Eye" McCoy (March), the inevitable happens — but misunderstandings and pride threaten their romance. The screenplay was written by Herman J. Mankiewicz, who later co-wrote Citizen Kane (1941). The film entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Comedy · Romance

Wings is the film that won the very first Academy Award for Best Picture, and it remains the only fully silent film to take the top prize. Directed by William A. Wellman, a former World War I fighter pilot, it follows two young American aviators who enlist in the Army Air Corps and become combat pilots in France, bound by friendship and divided by their love for the same woman. Clara Bow plays the hometown girl waiting back home. The aerial dogfight sequences were shot with real planes and real pilots, hundreds of them, and they still rank among the most thrilling ever filmed. Gary Cooper appears briefly in an early role that helped launch his career. The film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2023.

War · Drama · Romance · Silent