claudette colbert....france's greatest export to the states. claudette personifies what a film legend is. she spanned all of the movie experience. from silent films she easily and gracefully moved to talkies. from black and white she became more enchanting with the move to color. and from the big screen to the small screen she rounded out her career with the mini series 'the two mrs. grenvilles'. oh yeah there were the broadway triumphs too. claudette is gone to her peace but lives forever on celluloid. she won one oscar ('it happened one night') but deserved at least two ('since you went away'). i was first introduced to her work via 'since you went away' on television. it remains in my top ten of all time favorites. heck it also introduced me to the wonderful jennifer jones, joseph cotton, robert walker and guy madison. what's not to love!
her well deserved oscar was for 'it happened one night' and at 74 years old it is still one of the best comedies ever made. it defines classic film.
her 'cleopatra' still makes elizabeth taylor's look like a high school performance by an understudy.
'the sign of the cross' is still a risque romp filmed and released before hollywood had a 'standards and practice' rule.
'midnight' is another classic comedy. a wonderful romp really.
there are soooo many more but i'll single out 'the palm beach story', 'imitation of life' and 'three came home' also among my favorites.
so here they all are together. i'm rating them ****stars apiece as they all withstand the test of time. they need to be judged by the era in which they were filmed. they are classics all.
so thank you claudette for your grace, your charm and you forever enduring performances.
R.I.P.
