Claudette Colbert 9.13

[MyFavoriteFilms]

Nice to see TCM honoring this legend on her birthday. Some of Claudette's films that will be airing:

 

*IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT*

 

*IT'S A WONDERFUL WORLD*

 

*MIDNIGHT*

 

*BOOM TOWN*

 

*THE PALM BEACH STORY*

 

*THE SECRET HEART*

 

*THREE CAME HOME*

 

*THE SECRET FURY*

 

I've seen all of these except for THREE CAME HOME...there is hardly a clunker on her film resume. She probably had one of the best, most consistent careers in the business.

 

[annelovestcm]

she was beautiful

[MyFavoriteFilms]

Yes...and such talent.

 

I would like to have seen SINCE YOU WENT AWAY and her last film, PARISH which is very good (she plays Troy Donahue's mother).

 

And wouldn't it be nice if TCM had more of her Paramount comedies with Fred MacMurray.

[Hibi]

I recorded It's A Wonderful World. I'm not familiar with that one. (didnt know she did a film with Jimmy Stewart!)

[MyFavoriteFilms]

It's an amusing little screwball comedy, bolstered by the presence of some really fine character actors such as Guy Kibbee. The plot doesn't make much sense, but it's a fun romp.

[lupinofan]

i love when they air her movies, she just had something about her that i loved. and i don't ever seem to be bored watching her in a movie. i remember watching palm beach story one time but i wasnt prepared to watch it because the race was going to be on and it got post-poned, for some reason, it just played on my tv while i was busy writing. i finally saw it yesterday in complete focus this time and i would love to see that movie again.

[LoveFilmNoir]

You said it!

 

Whenever I see her name on the schedule I light up. Yesterday would have been the perfect day for me to take a sick day! I could watch THE PALM BEACH STORY over and over again. The same with MIDNIGHT. The type of charisma Colbert brings to her roles just makes you confident that she would probably make a good friend in real life. I loved her little speech to Frank Capra when he received the lifetime achievement award from the AFI. A real lovely and classy woman indeed.

[MyFavoriteFilms]

Yes...when I see her films on the schedule, I always feel a bit happier.

 

I was trying to figure out why I liked her and I think it's a few reasons. First she seems very professional and puts a lot of care into her performances. And you get a sense of her real-life personality, someone who seems friendly and considerate of others. And the other reason I like her is because she works for every major studio...although the projects vary in intensity and the studios put their signature stamp on the individual motion pictures, Colbert always ensures a higher level of craftsmanship and warmth. Film critics mention the Lubitsch touch (in reference to the famous director), but there is also a Colbert touch.

[margarita_salt]

The Palm Beach Story and It Happened One Night, both these films are in my library and I can not watch them enough. I love this actress. She had all the elements of being a movie star. She has always been one of my favorites. I wrote a paper about her in my film studies class in college and enjoyed researching about her life.

[MyFavoriteFilms]

One thing I was going to add about Claudette Colbert is that she was never upstaged by her costars. She graciously co-exists with them on film, something other diva-type actresses did not do.

 

And in TOMORROW IS FOREVER, she is definitely not overtaken by Orson Welles. Orson chewed scenery and actors left and right. But in this film, he is firmly in check.

 

I love her in 1946's WITHOUT RESERVATIONS...a post-war comedy with John Wayne and a Cary Grant cameo. She is again at her playful best in this one.

[Writer]

I like watching a movie with Claudette Colbert in it. I have the movie, "It Happened One Night", and it's one of my favorites. The scenes of trying to get a ride and when they are in the motel room are classics.

I have one with her and Louise Beavers about a young woman who is Black but looks White. The young woman doesn't like being Black and she leaves her mother and goes away to work. Louise has to bear with her daughter for a long time and is very upset that she hasn't come home. Then Louise dies and during the funeral her daughter is there watching and she goes to the casket and apologizes to her mother and cries.

I have the movie "Cleopatra" that she made and "The Palm Beach Story".

You may think this is strange, but when I see her I think of a bouquet of flowers. She comes across to me that way. When she plays the role of a mother she does it to where it seems like it comes naturally to her.

Recently I watched the movie, "Three Came Home". I saw it once before. It's about what the Germans did during World War 2. The scene that stands out in my mind is where she, Walter Pidgeon and their children are in a small room and German airplanes are heard overhead and then they hear bombs as they hiss when they come down. I don't like what the Germans did and how they did it during the war. This movie tells the story of the war as it really was. It's a movie worth seeing.

[Poinciana]

Wasn't she cute in The Egg and I! Crawling around in the pig muck yelling at Cleopatra, slapping the palms of her hands in it trying to get the critter to obey... (Do you suppose the screenwriter named the pig "Cleopatra" as sort of an inside joke? I'm sure if this was the case, Claudette was the first one to roar.)

[MyFavoriteFilms]

I agree that THREE CAME HOME is a deeply moving film. Claudette's performance in it is very good.

 

CLEOPATRA was one of three films she made with director Cecil DeMille. The other two were THE SIGN OF THE CROSS and FOUR FRIGHTENED PEOPLE.

 

The movie you referenced with Louise Beavers is the original IMITATION OF LIFE, from around 1934. I have seen the remake with Lana Turner and Juanita Moore but still have yet to see the original.

[MyFavoriteFilms]

I have a feeling it was probably an inside joke. Unless that's what the animal's name really was in the book. The film was based on Betty MacDonald's bestselling novel.