This film stars the most vivacious and flirtatious actress ever to make a Hollywood film, the amazing Clara Bow. In every scene in which she appears she is spellbinding and compelling. Aged 21 and being only five feet three inches high, and slender, she leaps into men's arms, hops onto a table as if she is a rabbit, hurls herself about in a bewildering whirl of super-charged energy. It is amazing that cinematographer James Wong Howe (billed only as James Howe) could keep up with her antics, but he manages to keep her onscreen most of the time despite her frenetic hurricane of rapid movements. And he knows just how to capture her winsome and hypnotic expressions in closeups which bring out all of her magic. Victor Fleming directed this film with just the right amount of panache. Apparently he and Bow had an affair during the making of this picture. He was later to go on to make cinema history by directing Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. The film is based upon a novel by Sinclair Lewis. The title of the film is the name of a small settlement on the border of Canada and Minnesota, amongst the lakes and forests. There lives the lonely Joe, played with gusto by Ernest Torrence. He tells his friend he once saw a woman's ankle in Minneapolis in 1906, but is now downhearted. His friend tells him to make the trip to Minneapolis, where 'they show much more than ankles these days'. So he does. He meets Clara Bow, who is the manicurist in the barber shop where he gets a haircut, and of course, a manicure. One thing leads to another and they get hitched and go back to Mantrap. A sophisticated New York lawyer, played by Percy Marmont, finds himself 'in the wilds' on a holiday and is taken to Mantrap, where Clara Bow flirts with him outrageously. The film's titles are often hilarious, and the entire film in every respect is funny and entertaining throughout. It helped Clara Bow rise to the status of a serious star, and the next year she made her two most brilliant films, It and Wings (she my reviews of both). She remains one of the most delightful actresses in the whole of cinema history.
Review of Mantrap
