Claudia

I saw this film many years ago and remembered nearly all of it. It was a real treat to see it again.

Dorothy McGuire recreates her stage role in a wonderful screen debut as Claudia, the guileless child bride of Robert Young. Her naiveté gets her into some difficulty with an amorous neighbor (Reginald Gardiner) and her attachment to her ailing mother (Ina Claire) is a concern to her husband.

McGuire and Young make a charming screen couple - she is all energy and he is more deadpan - it's a nice contrast, and the two characters are obviously very much in love. Ina Claire turns in a warm and touching performance as Claudia's mother.

McGuire sparkles in this role, particularly in the transition when Claudia is forced to grow up almost overnight. Of course, she went on to have a great career that spanned nearly 50 years in film. It's easy to see why when you watch "Claudia." This was followed by a sequel, "Claudia and David."

Claudia is a child bride whose insecurity and inexperience nearly destroy her idyllic marriage to an older man. During the course of the film, Claudia is forced to mature and to learn what makes a marriage between two adults. What makes this film special is the luminous portrayal of Dorothy McGuire in her film debut. Her beauty and sweetness have remained in my mind for over forty years, when I first saw this movie on TV. For students of social history, the 1940's setting also gives us a glimpse of marriage and social customs sixty years ago. But the real reason to see this film and its sequel, Claudia and David, is McGuire. I can compare her beauty only with that of the young Maria Schell.

CLAUDIA is an excellent film, based on a novel and Broadway play which starred Dorothy McGuire as a young and naive wife of an older man who lives in the Connecticut countryside. McGuire recreated her stage role in her film debut, which was a smash hit.

Claudia is a naive young woman who lives on a farm in rural Connecticut before WW II. The farm is isolated and has no electricity. Her major contacts with the world are her architect husband (Robert Young) and her mother (Ina Claire) who lives in New York City. She is devoted to both but is torn between living with her husband at the cost of being separated from her mother.

A few colorful characters breeze through her rural idyll. There's a roguish writer (Reginald Gardiner) who lives down the road and who makes a pass at her. And there's an opera diva (silent film star Olga Baclanova) who wants to buy the farm. These characters change Claudia and her relationship with her husband.

There are other changes coming to Claudia. She discovers she is pregnant just as she discovers a sad truth about her mother. Claudia adjusts to her world slowly but resolutely. It's called growing up.

Wonderful performances by all with McGuire center stage. Director Edmund Goulding had wanted retired superstar Marion Davies for the role of the mother. He knew she would add some star wattage to the cast. She would have been marvelous. Legend has it Davies' long-time love William Randloph Hearst could not bear the thought of his beloved Davies playing a middle-aged mother. She was 46 years old at the time. What a pity she bypassed the film.

The film instantly established Dorothy McGuire as a film star and was followed by a sequel CLAUDIA AND David in 1946.

I'm not sure why I was disappointed with this film. Maybe because it was too stage-y or maybe it was Dorothy McGuire's performance or maybe it was because, when you get right down to it, the 3 basic themes of the film have all been handled better in other films. To me, the script seemed contrived.

Robert Young's performance is the opposite of Dorothy McGuire's - she is unconvincing and overacts at every opportunity (and there were lots of opportunities), while he gave a nice, nuanced performance filled with genuine emotion. I found Ms. McGuire's character and performance annoying to the nth degree. Had this film not gotten good reviews, I never would have watched it all the way through. The best scenes were when Ina Claire and Robert Young were interacting.

Maybe it's a chick film and that's why I didn't find myself enjoying it as much as I anticipated.

I rate this movie highly not necessarily for its cinematographic values (it is no "Citizen Kane") but for its depiction of the values and principles that guided our American ancestors. America was engaged in the cruelest war it has faced since the Civil War. Husbands and sons are suffering on foreign lands, news are censored, military operations are "blacked-out"; families back home need something to believe in, beliefs to cling on to especially when they are mourning the loss of loved ones. Rural Connecticutt, the scenery, the community, the house in which Claudia lived, feel like a breath of fresh air to the viewer and makes us forget our sorrows.

Hollywood produced many movies to help in America's war effort, directly (propaganda) or indirectly (fostering our countries' ideals). This is one of these movies. It reveals, by ricochet perhaps, the beauty of American life, the kindness of people, the innocence of love in its broad meaning. Despite the rationing and the tragedy of the war years, it offered our parents, hope that life could be and was beautiful, that these principles were worth fighting for. It also projected an ideal for the population to emulate, a code of conduct so to speak. This way of thinking/living was spread all over the country through thousands of community theaters. It helped guide a generation long gone in the aftermath of the great depression and the lean war years ahead.

In our modern society where trouble, murder, and sins of mankind get front page in the news and create constant fear and lingering anxiety among us, movies like "Claudia" and its sequel bring comfort and peace in our minds. This film reminds us of who we once were, loving individuals who cared for one another. It brings us back at a time when we, Americans, cared for one another, when we would pick-up hitch-hikers, when we would lend money to friends, when the local bank would help you out of financial difficulty. Our country stood for something and provided relief and shelter to the rest of the world.

I give my appreciation to the director, the writers and the cast who made this movie, a model of Americana for us to follow. I also appreciate all the film lovers who take the time and effort to enlighten the users of IMDb with their details and comments about the movies they review. May God Bless America!

Signed: A Disabled Veteran of the War against Terrorism.