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:)

scene project take 3...

Since You Went Away (1944) - Claudette Colbert

Claudette Colbert was one of the crown jewels of the Golden Age of Hollywood. She was adept in both comedy and drama and she was something of a rebel off-camera. She also had that rare quality of being both chic/glamorous and down-to-earth.

In this touching homefront drama, she plays the mother of two whose husband is off fighting in WWII. She has received a telegram months before this scene, saying that he is missing in action and she and her family have almost accepted the fact that he is probably dead.

In this final scene of the film, Colbert's maid has placed gifts that were left by her missing husband a year ago under the Christmas tree. He has given her a beautiful powder box and a loving note that finally causes Colbert to break down and shatter her stoic demeanor. She can no longer hold back the tears and sadness that she's let sit inside her all these months. After opening the gift, her telephone rings and it's a cable gram alerting her that her husband is safe and on his way home. She goes off to tell the girls (played by Shirley Temple and Jennifer Jones, who just recently passed away). It's a bit of a quickie Hollywood happy ending, but you feel so deeply for Colbert and the love she has for her husband in these final moments that you could care less if it's a plausible conclusion or not. You simply sit back and celebrate the good news right along with the brave ladies at home. This is one of those quiet, tender scenes of real human emotion that make all the expensive sequences of battle and war pale in comparison.