Passages of Gothic Project Notes

Following the intense and enjoyable screening of the Melodrama Research Group’s contribution to the International Festival of Projections,  here is a version of Frances’ wonderful Project Notes for Passages of Gothic.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940) is often cited as the first in a cycle of films emerging in Hollywood in the 1940s labelled as ‘Gothic’. These films – which have also been called ‘melodramas’, ‘women’s films’ and ‘female film noirs’ – feature similar narratives focusing on the central female protagonist: the Gothic heroine. In all these films, the Gothic heroine encounters the old dark house which harbours a sinister secret which the heroine must investigate, often in fear for her life. This threat usually emanates from a male love interest, or is sometimes presented as the oppression of a larger patriarchal society. These films – which also include Gaslight (1944), Secret Beyond the Door (1947) and Sleep, My Love(1948) – feature remarkably consistent motifs, including keys, staircases, images of the heroine alone in the dark and the threat of the domestic space. Significantly, the study of film history reveals that these tropes are not isolated to the Hollywood Gothics of the 1940s but, in fact, continue to inform and appear within the Gothic cinema of today. This installation shall highlight and explore these similarities.

This project focuses on the female performance in these films in order to show the narrative and visual agency given to characters who are often seen as passive subjects and victims. Whilst the Gothic heroine may indeed be threatened by her male counterpart or dangerous environment, these stories encourage us to identify with the female lead, admiring her bravery. We engage with these films’ narratives by aligning with the Gothic heroine and her experiences. In particular, our exploration of space is mediated by the Gothic heroine’s actions. This project will illuminate how such investigation consistently takes place within the domestic space: the safety of a home is transformed into the mysterious and dangerous space of the old dark house. Comparing these films demonstrates how the Gothic heroine is often framed within the in-between places of a house: the stairwell, the hallway or the doorway. These thresholds are spaces which blur the boundaries between the public and private spheres of a home, in much the same way these Gothic narratives present a slippage between the real and the imagined; the everyday and the supernatural.

It is for these reasons that Passages of Gothic is presented within Eliot Dining Hall. Eliot College is a building which is also both a public and private space, containing professional forums for study (lecture halls, seminar rooms and offices) and private rooms (student bedrooms and kitchens). The Hall is at the heart of the college and provides passageways between these distinct locations. The Hall’s distinctive appearance has also historically made it the site for public and private events, and its scale is evocative of the intimating houses the Gothic heroine explores in these films. As the name of this event suggests,Passages of Gothic therefore invites you to immerse yourself into the Gothic heroine’s world.

The film shall play on three separate screens and is divided into six ‘chapters’. Together, these chapters create a narrative which is reflective of the fictional journey taken by the Gothic heroine: the heroine enters the house; she is forced the investigate strange occurrences; she is threatened by someone or something; and she may or may not survive her ordeal. In Passages of Gothic these six chapters are:

1. “I dreamt I went to Manderley again”: Gothic introductions
2. Inside the house
3. “I should go mad if I stay!”
4. Lights in the darkness
5. Women in peril
6. “Why?”

Passages of Gothic is the culmination of the research conducted by the Melodrama Research Group into female performance, stardom, genre conventions, Gothic tropes and the representations of the heroine on-screen. This installation showcases the re-emergence of Gothic tropes – in a remarkably consistent fashion – across film history, highlighting the importance of the Gothic heroine within this. Our celebration of the Gothic’s strong, brave, and active heroines contributes to an important, broader research question: why, after 75 years, do these representations of the Gothic heroine persist in the 21st Century?

Top image: Lies Lanckman and Ann-Marie Fleming (image from The Innocents (1961); Main text: Frances Kamm; Bottom image: Crimson Peak (2015)

Credits:

Passages of Gothic

Project organiser: Sarah Polley

Project’s writer and content provider: Frances Kamm

Project’s editor: Alaina Piro Schempp

Lead technician: Lies Lanckman

Promotions: Ann-Marie Fleming

IT Support: Oana Maria Mazilu

Contributor: Tamar Jeffers McDonald

Contributor: Katerina Flint-Nicol

The Gothic Heroines

Joan Fontaine in Rebecca (1940)

Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight (1944)

Dorothy McGuire in The Spiral Staircase (1945)

Joan Bennett in Secret Beyond the Door (1947)

Claudette Colbert in Sleep, My Love (1948)

Deborah Kerr in The Innocents (1961)

Katharine Ross in The Stepford Wives (1975)

Shelley Duvall in The Shining (1980)

JoBeth Williams in Poltergeist (1982)

Sigourney Weaver in Aliens (1986)

Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath (2000)

Nicole Kidman in The Others (2001)

Naomi Watts and Laura Harring in Mulholland Drive (2001)

Belén Rueda in The Orphanage (El Orfanato) (2007)

Rebecca Hall in The Awakening (2011)

Chiara D’Anna and Sidse Babett Knudsen in The Duke of Burgundy (2014)

Mia Wasikowska in Crimson Peak (2015)

The Melodrama Research Group is sponsored by the Centre for Film and Media Research within the School of Arts, University of Kent. The MRG is a cross-faculty group of academics who are interested in exploring the ideas surrounding melodrama as a hotly-contested topic. The group meets for regular screenings and debates, maintains a dynamic blog and has hosted research events. The group brings together scholars from various disciplines in order to foster collaborative networks for studying this pervasive but challenging genre.

This is a new, free arts festival taking place at the University of Kent from 18-20 March 2016. Spread across both the Canterbury and Medway campus, and with satellite events within the Canterbury City Centre, the festival celebrates the exciting and varied theme of projections.

It Happened One Night, 80 Years Ago

2014 has brought about the 75th anniversary of Gone with the Wind, which has been met with much deserving fanfare. No doubt, Rhett Butler is who draws the majority of people into Clark Gable fandom these days.

But this year brings about another important film milestone: the 80th anniversary of It Happened One Night, the little-film-that-could, one of the greatest romantic comedies ever made and the first to win the Academy Award “grand slam”: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay.  It is safe to say that if Clark had never played Rhett Butler, he would be remembered best for Peter Warne.

Director Frank Capra, one of the most renowned directors in the history of cinema, stated once that “a film about the making of It Happened One Night would have been much funnier than the picture itself.” I don’t know about that, but it sure would make a funny satire about movie making.

It Happened One Night started out as a magazine short story called “Night Bus” that was bought by the lowly, “poverty row” Columbia Pictures for a mere $5,000.  Capra, not yet at the top of his game and known mostly at that time for  the pre-code dramas he made starring Barbara Stanwyck, was not pleased about being assigned to direct this little bus film and argued with studio head Harry Cohn about it. He went off to Palm Springs with screenwriter Robert Riskin to try and squeeze some magic out of a tired old bus story.

Columbia didn’t have the payroll to house big names, so they always struck deals with other studios to get stars in their pictures. Capra and Cohn were excited to get some of MGM’s roster to be in their little bus picture. One of the first to turn down the script was Myrna Loy who recalled later, “Oh, I’ve taken flak for refusing that picture. Frank gave it to me for years…But let me say, here and now, they sent me the worst script ever, completely different from the one they shot. I’ve had others corroborate that… That girl was unplayable as originally written. I mean, we’re in the middle of the Great Depression and she’s running away because being rich bores her.” Her refusal was followed quickly by Constance Bennett, Miriam Hopkins and Margaret Sullavan. At the same time, Columbia was also making Twentieth Century and for that they were borrowing a certain Miss Carole Lombard, so they struck a deal to borrow Claudette Colbert for “Night Bus” as well. She balked at first, as she was due for a lengthy vacation. They were only able to secure her by promising a $50,000 paycheck and a written promise that the film would be completed in under four weeks.

It’s been widely reported that Clark Gable was sent to Columbia to star in IHON as a punishment for sleeping around with Joan Crawford despite Louis B. Mayer’s objections, and for missing weeks of filming due to a severe blood infection and causing production delays on Dancing Lady. Some reports say that isn’t true, that it wasn’t a punishment, it was just a deal between MGM and Columbia. Either way, Clark wasn’t happy. Robert Montgomery had already been secured and the contracts were being drawn up when suddenly Mayer withdrew his offer of Montgomery and replaced it with Gable.

Capra was at first elated to being offered Clark to star in his little bus film. But after his first meeting with the MGM star, he rightfully soured on the idea of Clark as the leading man. Capra remembered vividly his first encounter with Clark:

My open doorway darkened; tall, square-shouldered Gable stood there swaying, hat rakishly tilted over his eyes. Evidently, he had stopped at every bar between MGM and Gower Street.

“Is thish Mishter Frank Capra’s office?”

“Yes, Mr. Gable. I’m Frank Capra. Come in, please, come in.”

“Gla-ad to meet cha. Likewise.” He headed for a kitchen chair and plopped himself on it. I held my breath. The chair groaned, but didn’t break. Oh, was he loaded!…He cleared his throat with a  disgusted belch. Then he focused on me.

“Well-l, what’s the poop, shkipper–besides me?” He was not only boiled, he was steamed.

“Well, Mr. Gable, I–”

“That son-of-a-bitch Mayer,” he cut in. “I always wanted to see Siberia, but damn me–I never thought it would smell like this. Blech-h-h!”

My insides were curdling. I picked up a script and riffled it. “Mr. Gable, you and I are supposed to make a picture out of this. Shall I tell you the story or would you rather read the script by yourself?”

“Buddy,” he said in his tough-guy drawl, “I don’t give a [expletive] what you do with it.”

There being no handy rebuttal to that conversation stopper, I mumbled something about my Siberia being MGM, tucked the script under his armpit and suggested he read it between drinks. He swayed to his feet, looked down at me, and giggled drunkenly, “Hee hee-e-e! Sez you.” He wobbled out the door, hit both sides of it, then stumbled off, singing, “They call her frivilous Sa-a-al, a peculiar kinf of a–hey, you guys!” this last came to some Colombians in the courtyard, “Why aren’t you wearing parkas in Siberia?”

That was my first meeting with Clark Gable and, I hoped, my last.

Not the best first impression, but Capra’s opinion of Clark changed after filming began. “Clark turned out to be the most wonderful egg. He just had a ball. What I believe is that he was playing himself, and maybe for the only time in his career. That clowning, boyish, roguish he-man was Gable. He was shy, but a lot of fun with people he knew. He was very sensitive about those God-damned ears, but he made jokes about them. After a shot, he’d ask, ‘What’d they get–an ear?’ He didn’t look like anyone else. It was not only physical; he had mannerisms that were all his own; ways of standing, smoking–things like that–and a great flair for clothes. Whatever came natural to him, I let him do.”

Despite it’s rough start, the set of the film turned out to be an easygoing one, with improvising encouraged.

The story is of  Peter Warne, a cocky newspaperman who has just been fired, encountering runaway heiress Ellie Andrews on a night bus to New York from Miami. Peter realizes her identity and befriends her so he can get the exclusive story. Along the way, after masquerading as man and wife at an auto camp, sleeping in a field, hitch hiking and stealing a car, they fall in love. When Peter leaves Ellie at a motel in the middle of the night to try and get some money from his old boss to marry her, she mistakenly thinks he has left her for good and calls her father (Walter Connolly) and husband to pick her up. Peter is heartbroken and so is Ellie. She agrees to her father’s wishes that she re-marry her husband, since they were not married by a priest. On her re-wedding day, Peter shows up to collect money from her father for what he spent on her during the trip. He admits to her father that he loves her. Her father tells Ellie and as she is going down the aisle, she takes off to be with Peter.

There are so many great scenes, from the Walls of Jericho and “Perhaps you’re interested in how a man undresses.” to singing “The Flying Trapeze,” to hitch-hiking and a lesson in doughnut dunking, the film is no doubt a classic.

The film began shooting the last week of November and shot the last scene on December 23, 1933, costing a mere $325,000 to make. Claudette set out for vacation and Clark headed back to MGM, both certain that they’d just had a fun time making a sure flop. “Clark and I left wondering how the movie would be received. It was right in the middle of the Depression. People needed fantasy, they needed splendor and glamour, and Hollywood gave it to them. And here we were, looking a little seedy and riding on our bus.” Claudette recalled.

IHON  wasn’t an overnight sensation. It received good press reviews and the numbers were steady; but it was the word of mouth from moviegoers that brought in the receipts.  It ended up earning $1.1 million domestically, a large sum for a little bus picture made by a little studio.

Despite its success, it still was a shock that the film won all the major Academy Awards. Claudette famously had to accept her award in her traveling suit as she had been on her way to the train station when she heard she had won!

The film changed Clark’s life for many reasons. The first being, of course, that is was his first Oscar nomination and only win; ultimately it was the only major film award he would ever win. Secondly, the film skyrocketed his popularity. Before this, he was steadily gaining fans, but was mostly used as a “gigolo” for MGM’s female stars, playing second fiddle to Jean Harlow, Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford. IHON showed he could hold his own. Third, it proved he had real star power–just by removing his shirt and showing he had no undershirt underneath, sales of undershirts sharply declined!

Lastly, this film holds a special place in my heart. Years ago, I was just dipping my toe into classic films. I was flipping through the channels and TCM was on commerical and it said IHON was next. I remembered reading that Clark Gable (who was little more to me at that point than Rhett Butler) had won an Oscar for it but other than that I knew nothing about it. Little did I know that the film I was about to watch not only became one of my favorite films of all time, but it can be credited with this website as if it wasn’t for Clark’s absolutely wonderful performance capturing my heart, I wouldn’t be the Gable fan I am today.

Claudette Colbert

Nationality: American. Born: Claudette Lily Chauchoin in Paris, France, 13 September 1903. Education: Attended Washington Irving High School, New York, graduated 1923; studied briefly at Art Students League, New York. Family: Married 1) the actor Norman Foster, 1928 (divorced 1935); 2) Dr. Joel J. Pressman, 1935 (died 1968). Career: 1912—family moved to New York; 1923—met playwright Anne Morrison, offered bit part in her The Wild Westcotts; changed name to Colbert; 1925–26—on Broadway in A Kiss in a Taxi; 1927—first film role, for Paramount at Astoria studios; 1929—first talkie, The Hole in the Wall; Paramount contract; 1944—terminated Paramount contract; 1952–55—worked in European films and theater; 1956—replaced Margaret Sullavan in Broadway production of Janus; occasional stage appearances: with Rex Harrison on Broadway in The Kingfisher, 1978, and in London and New York in Aren't We All?, 1984–85; 1984—tribute staged by Film Society of Lincoln Center; 1987—in TV mini-series The Two Mrs. Grenvilles. Awards: Best Actress Academy Award, for It Happened One Night, 1934. Died: July 29, 1996.

Films as Actress:

1927

For the Love of Mike (Capra) (as Mary)

1929

The Hole in the Wall (Florey) (as Jean Oliver); The Lady Lies (Henley) (as Joyce Roamer)

1930

The Big Pond (Henley) (as Barbara Billings); La Grande Mare (Henley—French version of The Big Pond); Young Man of Manhattan (Bell) (as Ann Vaughn); Manslaughter (Abbott) (as Lydia Thorne); L'Enigmatique Monsieur Parkes (Gasnier—French version of Slightly Scarlet) (as Lucy de Stavrin)

1931

Honor among Lovers (Arzner) (as Julia Traynor); The Smiling Lieutenant (Lubitsch) (as Franzi); Le Lieutenant souriant (Lubitsch—French version of The Smiling Lieutenant); Secrets of a Secretary (Abbott) (as Helen Blake); His Woman (Sloman) (as Sally Clark)

1932

The Wiser Sex (Viertel) (as Margaret Hughes); The Misleading Lady (Walker) (as Helen Steele); The Man from Yesterday (Viertel) (as Sylvia Suffolk); Phantom President (Taurog) (as Felicia Hammond); The Sign of the Cross (Cecil B. DeMille) (as Empress Poppaea); Make Me a Star (Beaudine) (as guest star)

1933

Tonight Is Ours (Walker) (as Princess Nadja); I Cover the Waterfront (Cruze) (as Julie Kirk); Three-Cornered Moon (Nugent) (as Elizabeth Rimplegar); Torch Singer (Broadway Singer) (Hall and Somnes) (as Sally Trent/Mimi Barton)

1934

Four Frightened People (Cecil B. DeMille) (as Judy Cavendish); It Happened One Night (Capra) (as Ellie Andrews); Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille) (title role); Imitation of Life (Stahl) (as Beatrice Pullman)

1935

The Gilded Lily (Ruggles) (as Lillian David); Private Worlds (La Cava) (as Dr. Jane Everest); She Married Her Boss (La Cava) (as Julia Scott); The Bride Comes Home (Ruggles) (as Jeanette Desmereau)

1936

Under Two Flags (Lloyd) (as Cigarette)

1937

Maid of Salem (Lloyd) (as Barbara Clarke); I Met Him in Paris (Ruggles) (as Kay Denham); Tovarich (Litvak) (as Grand Duchess Tatiana Petrovna)

1938

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (Lubitsch) (as Nicole de Loiselle)

1939

Zaza (Cukor) (title role); Midnight (Leisen) (as Eve Peabody/"Baroness Czerny"); It's a Wonderful World (Van Dyke) (as Edwina Corday); Drums along the Mohawk (Ford) (as Lana "Magdelana" Martin)

1940

Boom Town (Conway) (as Betsy Bartlett); Arise My Love (Leisen) (as Augusta Nash)

1941

Skylark (Sandrich) (as Lydia Kenyon); Remember the Day (Henry King) (as Nora Trinell)

1942

The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges) (as Gerry Jeffers); Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 6

1943

So Proudly We Hail (Sandrich) (as Lt. Janet Davidson); No Time for Love (Leisen) (as Katherine Grant)

1944

Since You Went Away (Cromwell) (as Anne Hilton); Practically Yours (Leisen) (as Peggy Martin)

1945

Guest Wife (Wood) (as Mary)

1946

Tomorrow Is Forever (Pichel) (as Elizabeth MacDonald Hamilton); Without Reservations (LeRoy) (as Christopher "Kit" Madden); The Secret Heart (Leonard) (as Lee Addams)

1947

The Egg and I (Erskine) (as Betty MacDonald)

1948

Sleep, My Love (Sirk) (as Alison Courtland); Family Honeymoon (Binyon) (as Katie Armstrong Jordan)

1949

Bride for Sale (William D. Russell) (as Nora Shelly)

1950

Three Came Home (Negulesco) (as Agnes Keith); The Secret Fury (Mel Ferrer) (as Ellen)

1951

Thunder on the Hill (Bonaventure) (Sirk) (as Sister Mary Bonaventure); Let's Make It Legal (Sale) (as Miriam Halsworth)

1952

The Planter's Wife (Outpost in Malaya) (Annakin) (as Liz Frazer)

1953

Si Versailles m'était conté (Affairs in Versailles; Royal Affairs in Versailles) (Guitry) (as Mme. de Montespan)

1954

"Elizabeth" ep. of Destinées (Daughters of Destiny; Love, Soldiers and Women; Lysistrata) (Pagliero) (as Elizabeth I)

1955

Texas Lady (Whelan) (as Prudence Webb)

1960

Parrish (Daves) (as Ellen McLean)

1986

Three Came Home (Negulesco—for TV)

Claudette Colbert American actress

Claudette Colbert, original name Emilie (Lily) Claudette Chauchoin   (born September 13, 1903, Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France—died July 30, 1996, Speightstown, Barbados), American stage and motion-picture actress known for her trademark bangs, her velvety purring voice, her confident intelligent style, and her subtle, graceful acting.

Colbert moved with her family to New York City about 1910. While studying fashion design, she landed a small role in the Broadway play The Wild Westcotts (1923) after meeting the playwright at a party. She had begun using the name Claudette instead of Lily in high school, and for her stage name she added her paternal grandmother’s maiden name, Colbert. Although The Wild Westcotts had only a short run, Colbert enjoyed acting enough to give up thoughts of working as a fashion designer. Other Broadway and touring productions followed, and she achieved theatre stardom in The Barker (1927), playing a carnival snake charmer opposite Norman Foster, to whom she was married from 1928 to 1934. (Her second marriage, to Joel Pressman, lasted from 1935 until his death in 1968.) While still starring in The Barker, Colbert made her film debut in the Frank Capra-directed silent movie For the Love of Mike (1927). Miserable about the acting conventions for silent films and unhappy because she was unable to use one of her greatest assets, her voice, she returned to the stage determined never to make another film. That experience, however, did not prevent her from signing a contract with Paramount Pictures in 1928, and a year later she made her first talking picture, The Hole in the Wall, with Edward G. Robinson in an early gangster role. Colbert did not return to Broadway for more than 25 years.

Most of Colbert’s early movies were undistinguished, although her performances were admired. One of her first memorable roles was in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Sign of the Cross (1932). As Poppaea, the wife of Nero (played campily by Charles Laughton) and “the wickedest woman in the world,” Colbert slinked about in revealing costumes, vamped costar Fredric March, and in one famous scene took a bath in what was said to be asses’ milk. She caused a sensation and two years later reinforced her sex symbol status in DeMille’s flamboyant Cleopatra, playing the title role with tongue-in-cheek charm.

Colbert’s breakthrough came in 1934. That year she not only starred as Cleopatra but had two big successes with the melodrama Imitation of Life, with Louise Beavers, and Capra’s classic screwball comedy It Happened One Night, in which she played opposite Clark Gable. Colbert had been initially reluctant to appear in the slight comedy, but her sparkling performance as a runaway heiress became her most famous and won her an Academy Award. All three films were nominated for best motion picture that year.

One of the highest-paid film stars of the 1930s and ’40s, Colbert continued to demonstrate her expert comic timing in such sophisticated comedies as The Gilded Lily (1935; with Fred MacMurray and Ray Milland), Midnight (1939; with Don Ameche and John Barrymore), and The Palm Beach Story (1942; with Joel McCrea). She also had notable dramatic roles in films such as Private Worlds (1935; with Charles Boyer and McCrea), for which she was nominated for the best actress Academy Award; Since You Went Away (1944), which also won her a nomination for best actress; and Three Came Home (1950), based on the true story of one woman’s experiences in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps.

The characters Colbert created were relaxed and charming, even when embroiled in outlandish situations; she imbued them, seemingly effortlessly, with intelligence, style, warmth, and humour. The actress was also personally noted for those qualities as well as for her professionalism (despite her much-publicized insistence that she be photographed only from the left).

Colbert, who grew up speaking both French and English, appeared in several European films in the 1950s. But whether domestic or foreign, most of those films were undistinguished. She returned to the stage in 1951 in Westport, Connecticut, with Noël Coward’s Island Fling and to Broadway in 1956 in the romantic comedy Janus. Her other theatrical appearances included The Marriage-Go-Round (1958; 431 performances) and five other, relatively short-lived plays, the last of which, Aren’t We All?, ran for 93 performances in 1985. Colbert continued to act onstage and on television, appearing with Coward and Lauren Bacall in the made-for-television movie Blithe Spirit (1956) and on the television miniseries and her last major project, The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987; for which she won a best supporting actress Golden Globe), her last major project. In 1989 she was honoured with a Kennedy Center award for lifetime achievement. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Claudette Colbert Faced Life With Resilient Style

Claudette Colbert, who died Tuesday, brought an innate wit and self-reliance to a wide range of roles, yet in a fundamental way was always her sophisticated, resilient self, which was characteristic of the great stars of Hollywood's golden era.

Whether she was the "Maid of Salem" or Cleopatra or, as in "Midnight," a beauty who winds up in Paris with only the designer gown on her back, you could count on Colbert to face up to whatever situation she found herself in without self-pity and usually with crisp humor.

She was like this in real life, refusing to feel sorry for herself after a stroke put her in a wheelchair in 1993 and continuing to entertain her friends at her home in Barbados, where she died. Along with her well-known wit and charm she revealed in conversation a realistic, sensible quality of detachment about herself. She was a woman in whom clearly strength and femininity were not mutually exclusive qualities.

Those qualities shone on the screen in more than 60 films. Famously, a broken back from a skiing accident lost her "All About Eve" to Bette Davis, but she already had achieved screen immortality, especially in screwball comedy and in particular with "It Happened One Night," one of the most beloved of all American movies. This is the 1934 Frank Capra classic in which Colbert's runaway heiress proved to wise-guy reporter Clark Cable that when it comes to hitchhiking, the well-turned leg is mightier than the thumb.

"We never dreamed what we had in 'It Happened One Night,' " she told me in 1985. "I only did it because I wanted to make a picture with Clark Gable. Clark was a terribly real person.

"When Capra had that scene on the bus when we all sing, I recall thinking, 'How can all the passengers remember all the words to "The Man on the Flying Trapeze"? What has it got to do with the story?' I asked Frank. He said something brilliant: 'You're right, it has nothing to do with the rest of the picture. If it doesn't go over with the audience, we can cut it out.' " (It did go over and remains a moment of collective happiness arguably without parallel in American movies.)

*

Blessed with large brown eyes, set off by those famous bangs and apple cheeks, Colbert looked much the same over the decades. With her, youth was a matter of spirit, and she stayed looking sensational because she developed a timeless sense of style that firmly secured her place on the all-time best-dressed lists. Not for her was the waxworks, stop-the-clock look but a naturalness combined with a dedicated care of self. She was of that generation of stars that believed firmly that you owe it to yourself and to your public to look your best. For years she gave her official birth date as 1905, but late in life volunteered that it was 1903.

*

She was no nostalgia item, but a dynamic, contemporary woman more concerned with how her next performance would be than what she did she 50 or 60 years earlier, as rewarding and applauded as that may have been at the time. She remained the Claudette Colbert of fond screen memories but admitted to Vanity Fair recently that she wished she could still work.

Although Colbert enjoyed reading the Hollywood memoirs of some of her friends, she was not inclined to write her own and wasn't sure anyone would be interested anyway.

"I've had a lovely life. I've been blessed. The only bad thing is that my husband died much too soon. [Dr. Joel Pressman died in 1968.] When I went on the stage, I had success; when I went on the screen, I had success; when I got married, I had success. Well, my first marriage [to the late actor-director Norman Foster, to whom she was wed from 1928 to 1935] wasn't too successful.

"But my life has been wonderful, and for a book I think you have to have had a lot of trouble or a lot of sexual activity! They seem to want the gossipy things, and I'm not about to do that. And as for the funny things that happened, they may have been funny at the time, but they're not always funny now. I've had a helluva life. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm afraid it's not the kind that sells books!"

Hollywood Legend Claudette Colbert Dies

Claudette Colbert, who had been a star for so long that almost no one could remember when--or if--she had ever been anything else, died Tuesday. She was 90.

Colbert, who maintained homes in Manhattan and Barbados, died in Bridgetown, Barbados.

She had been hospitalized there in March 1993 after a stroke that affected her right side had put her in a wheelchair. But columnist Liz Smith, who visited her at her island home, Belle Rive, said that despite the stroke, Colbert still applied full makeup daily and joined her guests for lunch, cocktails and dinner.

When friends lamented Colbert's stroke three years ago, she replied with her typical full-throated laugh: "Oh, why not me? It hasn't been fun, but you just have to go on with life and get over it."

Colbert was a popular leading lady for three decades, a veteran of 64 films and a recipient of countless honors.

The winner of one Academy Award and nominated for two others, she specialized in sophisticated comedy but yearned for dramatic roles, especially female villains.

"I just never had the luck to play bitches," she told an interviewer decades before her death. "Those are the only parts that ever register, really."

Two such roles she almost played were Margo Channing in "All About Eve" and Blanche du Bois in the Broadway version of "A Streetcar Named Desire." A skiing accident kept her from one role, movie commitments from the other.

Yet she had never been idle. Her essential career, begun nearly 70 years ago in the theater, continued there long after she ceased to appear in movies.

Her dominance of the screen began in 1932 with a single sensuous scene in Cecil B. De Mille's "The Sign of the Cross" that established her as star material.

She also made "Cleopatra" for De Mille, but that was after she made the film that brought her the Academy Award: the enduring comedy "It Happened One Night," in which her shimmering contralto voice was paired with Clark Gable's macho form and cynical demeanor.

And then followed a string of successes that included "Imitation of Life," "The Gilded Lily," "I Met Him in Paris," "Since You Went Away," "The Egg and I" and many more.

A Claudette Colbert video collection released last year included the films "Cleopatra," "Midnight," "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife" and "So Proudly We Hail."

The three decades of movie history to which she brought a heart-shaped face framed by reddish-brown bangs and highlighted by a bright smile spanned Hollywood's Golden Age--from the intimacy of silent films to the sprawling images of Cinemascope.

Nonetheless, she was known as one of the least "actressy" of actresses, and once said she never even considered acting "the primary thing" in her life.

Indeed, she said she had "never intended to be an actress at all."

Lily Claudette Chauchoin, according to her passport, was born Sept. 13, 1905, in Paris, where her father was a minor functionary in the French banking system. (In her later years, she gave her birth year as 1903.)

The family (including grandmere Marie Loew, a major force in her life) moved to New York City in 1910, settling in Manhattan's East Fifties.

Marie Loew spoke English and French and passed on the languages to her grandchildren. There was no language barrier, therefore, when Lily (as she was then called) and her brother, Charles, entered American schools.

At Washington Irving High School, again at her grandmother's suggestion, Lily studied art and design to prepare for a career in fashion; she also began taking classes at the Art Students League.

There had been one minor digression from this carefully plotted course--the part of Rosalind in a high school production of "As You Like It."

The family hardly noticed, and after graduation, Lily continued her art league classes, took a job in a dress shop to learn more about designing, and gave French lessons in the evenings to augment her income.

"But plans are one thing, and life is another," the actress said in later years. "Grandmere's hopes, and mine, turned pale the day I met Anne Morrison."

Playwright Morrison saw something that Lily's family--and Lily herself--had evidently missed.

She told her that she should become an actress, and wangled the girl a three-line part in a stage play, "The Wild Westcotts," with Cornelia Otis Skinner, Elliot Nugent and Edna May Oliver.

During the show's tryout in Stamford, Conn., Lily's part was expanded--and she acquired a new name. " 'Lily' didn't seem right, somehow," she said, "so I settled on 'Claudette.' And 'Chauchoin' became 'Colbert.' "

For the next three years the young actress survived a series of minor parts, short-lived engagements and less-than-successful road tours in such plays as "We've Got to Have Money," "The Marionette Man," "The Cat Came Back," "High Stakes" and "Leah Kleschna."

However, it was the part of Lou, the snake charmer, in "The Barker" in 1927 that became her true big break.

Claudette Colbert: Author James Robert Parish Discusses the Paramount Star

Claudette Colbert, Paramount star

Those who remember Claudette Colbert, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” featured player today, will likely picture a woman raising her skirt so as to hitch a ride in Frank Capra's 1934 Academy Award-winning comedy It Happened One Night. After all, Colbert's left leg immediately succeeds where Clark Gable's left thumb failed. [Claudette Colbert Movie Schedule.]

Colbert, however, could get her way without having to resort to displaying her ankle to helpless oncoming drivers. In fact, during her nearly three decades as a film star – a film superstar during more than half that period – Colbert almost invariably got her way in both dramas and comedies, whether in modern dress or in period costumes. All she needed to do was raise a knowing eyebrow, open a megawatt smile, or bathe naked in a pool filled with asses' milk.

On screen, Colbert could be funny, heartbreaking, witty, dazed and confused, sophisticated, bourgeois, sexless, sexy. On the set of her films, she could be the perfect diva, making demands on how she should be lit and how she should be photographed. Indeed, according to cinematographer Joseph August, Frank Capra and Colbert “ended up hating each other” after working together in the actress' only silent film, For the Love of Mike. Things didn't improve any during the shooting of their second joint effort, It Happened One Night.

But (at least in her films) Colbert couldn't be one thing: phony. Whether because of her extensive Broadway training, or merely because the actress had what it takes to behave naturally in front of the camera, the vast majority of her performances hold up remarkably well. Despite the elaborate coiffures, the glamorous gowns, and the penciled eyebrows, Colbert exuded freshness at a time when so many performers – both male and female, stage-trained or not – believed that film acting meant posing and declaiming.

Back in March 2007, James Robert Parish, author of The RKO Gals, The Paramount Pretties (among them Colbert), Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops, and It's Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks, among dozens of other titles, agreed to answer a few questions (via email) about Claudette Colbert. At the time, Jim was doing research on Colbert's life for a possible book project. Please click on the link below the check out the reposted Parish/Colbert q&a.

Claudette Colbert photo via Doctor Macro.

Henry Wilcoxon, Claudette Colbert in Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra

You've been planning for some time a biography of Claudette Colbert. How did you become interested in Colbert's life story?

As a very young teenager, I saw several of Claudette Colbert's films on TV and was fascinated by her verve, throaty voice, attractiveness, and acting versatility – whether drama, comedy, or just a “personality” performance. Later, I saw several of her stage vehicles: In pre-Broadway tryout, on Broadway, and on tour, ranging from The Marriage-Go-Round in 1958 to Aren't We All in 1985. On stage, she proved just how superior a (light) comedienne she was, and her energy/presence was truly captivating – no matter how slight the play. Over these years, I became very intrigued with what made her “tick."

Would you say there's something that distinguishes Claudette Colbert from the other screwball comediennes of the 1930s – Jean Arthur, Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy, Carole Lombard? And if so, how would you define that special “it” that Colbert possessed?

Colbert had a beguiling mixture of sophistication and “down-to-earthiness,” and she was able to call upon this blend when on camera, whether the scene called for her to be funny, poignant, or romantic. She possessed an undeniable Continental flair – due to her French background – that set her apart from the very American Arthur, Dunne, Loy, and Lombard. Then too, unlike her screen comedy rivals, Colbert won an Oscar for starring in a screwball comedy (It Happened One Night in 1934). [Colbert went on to receive two other Academy Award nominations: In 1935 forPrivate Worlds and in 1944 for Since You Went Away.]

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In his autobiography, director Frank Capra fired off quite a few complaints about Claudette Colbert. How have her other directors – and co-stars – described working with her?

Contrary to her public image of being gracious and ladylike, Colbert was a determined show business trouper who could be exceedingly tough on fellow performers/technicians who did not meet her particular standards of professionalism. When displeased, she could swear like a sailor. She was also a shrewd businessperson who negotiated very favorable terms for doing her screen projects. Moreover, she was quite stubborn about how she was to be presented on screen – whether it be her trademark bangs hairstyle, the better side of her face that should be featured in movie scenes, or how she should be costumed for filming.

As she famously said about her word being final in matters concerning her professional activities: “I've been in the Claudette Colbert business a long time.”

Claudette Colbert was the top female Paramount star for nearly a decade, from the mid-1930s to the early 1940s. Did she always have first choice of roles at the studio, or did she have to fight with fellow Paramountie Carole Lombard for the cream-of-the-crop projects?

Just as it was true at other studios, emerging leading ladies at Paramount got typed in particular roles: in the early 1930s at that film lot, soulful Sylvia Sidney handled many of the heavy dramas – especially when it involved a proletarian heroine; tomboyish Carole Lombard played down-to-earth ladies, Marlene Dietrich was the Continental sophisticate; and Colbert was typically the bright beauty who nearly always seemed smarter than her leading man or the script's other characters.

There were several occasions when due to filming schedules and/or producer/director preference, other talent had been wanted for a role first (e.g., Columbia's It Happened One Night, 20th Century-Fox's Under Two Flags, and Paramount's Zaza). However, Colbert was considered so distinctive and versatile that Paramount usually built vehicles expressly for her. And because she loved to work (and even more so loved the high salary she was paid) the film lot kept her constantly busy. [Myrna Loy, Margaret Sullavan, Miriam Hopkins, and Constance Bennett were mentioned for It Happened One Night; Simone Simon and Isa Miranda were initially cast inUnder Two Flags and Zaza, respectively.]

A follow-up to the previous question: Which roles did Claudette Colbert want – whether at Paramount or elsewhere – that she didn't get?

Colbert knew her limitations (because of her sophisticated look and being French-born), so, once a star, she stayed away from seeking parts that would be too far afield from her screen type. Noticeably, she was one of the few actresses in late-1930s Hollywood who did not seek the role of Scarlett O'Hara inGone with the Wind despite the fact that she was a great favorite and personal friend of GWTW producer David O. Selznick.

A few years later, Selznick offered Colbert a huge salary to star in his life-on-the-homefront World War II saga, Since You Went Away. She couldn't resist the hefty fee, but lived to regret the decision, because the set of that picture was so strife-torn – with married Selznick pursuing married young leading lady Jennifer Jones, who played Colbert's daughter in the film. [Jones was then married to actor Robert Walker, who plays her soldier boyfriend inSince You Went Away. She later divorced Walker and married Selznick.]

Whenever people think of Claudette Colbert, they think of It Happened One Night. Whenever I think of Claudette Colbert, I think of The Sign of the Cross, Midnight, and Since You Went Away. How did she get involved in those four films? Did she have anything to say about them later on?

Paramount's Cecil B. DeMille was struck by Colbert's beauty, wit, and sophistication, which made her ideal to play the decadent Empress Poppaea in The Sign of the Cross. (Besides, she was already under Paramount contract.) Her performance in that epic was the first of three pictures – including Cleopatra in 1934 – she made with DeMille. She acknowledged that working in DeMille vehicles did much to elevate her from the actress pack, and helped to make her a top Hollywood star. [The third DeMille-Colbert collaboration was the over-the-top adventure-comedy-melodramaFour Frightened People, also released in 1934.]

Many actresses had been wanted for It Happened One Night, including Myrna Loy, Margaret Sullavan, and Constance Bennett. They refused, but Colbert finally accepted the assignment – not because she had great faith in the project but because she was able to negotiate a highly favorable loan-out salary (and she had already worked with director Frank Capra in For the Love of Mike – her 1927 screen debut). Colbert always was amazed that such a little picture as It Happened One Night could bring her and the film such enduring tributes.

Midnight (1939) was originally planned to star Marlene Dietrich, but she was on her way out of Paramount by the time it was filmed. Colbert was a natural replacement choice for this chic comedy set in Paris, and she found working with director Mitchell Leisen a felicitous experience.

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As noted above, David O. Selznick used his friendship with Colbert – and offering her a hefty fee ($265,000) – to gain her participation in Since You Went Away.

Claudette Colbert's stardom fizzled in the early 1950s. Apart from the fact that she was then in her early 50s, that the studios' contract players were being let go, and that female moviegoers were staying home to watch I Love Lucy – did Colbert fail to do something that would have kept her film stardom afloat?

Colbert was born in 1901 [older sources said 1905; new sources say 1903; Jim has confirmed it's 1901] and by the time of Texas Ladyin 1955 she was in her mid-50s. Although she remained strikingly attractive and retained a youthful figure, she was smart enough to know that in fast-changing Hollywood – where the studio system was dying – her screen stardom days were over. Most of her contemporaries (e.g., Carole Lombard, Sylvia Sidney, Marlene Dietrich, Kay Francis, Jean Arthur, Irene Dunne) were either dead, retired, or had migrated to TV work (as did Colbert in the 1950s).

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