I was watching The Palm Beach Story this weekend, and was struck again by what a corker Claudette Colbert was. Never made a false move, in either drama or comedy; no matter how average her films might have beem she always hit just the right note. And what films!* Three Cornered-Moon, It Happened One Night, Cleopatra, Midnight, The Palm Beach Story, So Proudly We Hail, Since You Went Away . . .*
And, for what it’s worth, I hear she was a bright, funny and very nice person in real life, too . . .
Oh, I really like her. Always have. One of my favorites is Since You Went Away. She played a “mom” type, but she was so cool…
I love Claudette Colbert! You’re right, Eve, she was always spot-on in any role she chose. Always bright and frank, never precious or posing.
I loved her in The Egg And I, too.
On a vaguely tangential note:
My uncle was once telling a story about a movie he saw that starred Claudette. Unfortunately, he was completely blanking on her name so the entire story revolved around a movie starring a sultry and attractive woman named Claude Akins.
I recall that she was very generous as well. When she died she left her nephews $10,000 each on the condition that they spend it on something completely frivolous.
I always stop surfing when I come across a Claudette Colbert movie. Doesn’t happen nearly often enough. When friends are talking about a modern actress and I pipe up with “She’s no Claudette Colbert.”, I always get weird looks.
I liked her in Thunder On The Hill where she was a bean farmer.
Eve, what would we ever do without AMC?
Could somebody answer a question for me? I saw part of a wonderful movie of hers a long time ago. All I remember is a scene where she had nothing to wear but a pair of mens’ pajamas, and she transformed them into a very cool sarong outfit. What movie was that?
It was, indeeed, the above-mentioned The Palm Beach Story. Her clothes were lost when the railroad cut loose the car with the Ale & Quail Club—and Claudette’s luggage—in it. So she whipped up what she could, including a skirt with a “Pullman” logo on her backside.
Three Things I Know About Claudette Colbert:
She thought the left side of her face was better than the right. She even demanded they rebuild the sets of her films so she could make entrances with only her left profile showing.
She was so sure she wouldn’t win an Oscar for It Happened One Night, that she made train reservations to New York the evening of the ceremonies. When she did win, an Academy official was sent to the station to pull her off the train and bring her to the festivities. She accepted the Oscar in her travelling suit, then went back to catch her train (which had been held for her).
My favorite insult is about her, and it comes from Noel Coward: “I’d wring your neck, if you had one.”