scene project take 15...

Torch Singer (1933) - Claudette Colbert






Claudette returns!
Torch Singer is a little known film that centers on Colbert having to give up her young daughter for adoption because she doesn't have the money to support her; and her subsequent struggle with that decision. This is a pre-Code film which are always fun to watch - Claudette wasn't married when she gets pregnant:O If this would have happened in a film made after 1934, either she or her baby would have probably died or she would have gone on to live a horrible, sad life.

Anyway, this is an early scene before she gives the little girl up and she is giving her and her roommate's son a bath. The reason I chose this scene is because it is a wonderful example of Colbert's gift with children on screen. Perhaps the images don't quite convey that, but you can kind of get the idea. Colbert is my favorite screen mother of all time - no matter what film she's in with kids. She has this amazing ability to really react honestly to whatever unrehearsed actions or words they might present her with. For instance, in that second shot, the little boy reached up and put his hand on her mouth - and she kissed his little hand as if it had been rehearsed. Obviously you can't have a baby do that on cue, so I'm sure it was completely spontaneous. She really knew how to be affectionate with a child in a way that was absolutely believable and tender.

This gift of Colbert's wouldn't be all that spectacular except for the fact that she herself never had any children. And yet time and again, her compassion and maternal warmth for her onscreen children was always palpable. In fact, whenever she would embrace her young child or comfort them, you really feel like she is embracing/comforting you. That may sound crazy, but I tell you it's true.

And I adore that final shot of her smiling at the proud young boy:)