Tweet
Released by: 20th Century Fox
Released on: Jun. 26, 2012
Director: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young, Ina Claire
Year: 1943
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Claudia represents a style of American cinema that, thankfully, has played itself out. Based on a stage play the film pretty much acts like that, with limited sets, references to off-screen activity, and keeping everybody in the same shots, together. Further, though, is its subject matter, that of a young bride, Claudia (McGuire), and her daily “problems.â€
She's a free-spirited young woman but so clingy with her mother, Mrs. Brown (Claire), and chatters on incessantly about nothing to her long-suffering husband, David (Young). They've only been married a year and live on a farm away from the city. But she feels unappreciated so she tries to sell the farm to one crazy acquaintance (so they can move back to the city and close to mommy) and in the same morning tries to let a stranger seduce her (so she can see the passionate response of her husband).
The characters in this movie all screech at a decibel akin to nails scratching a chalkboard. Every entrance and exit is grand and announced, clear and unnecessary leftovers from the stage production. The story itself clearly hates women, too, thinking them nothing more than over-emotional, clingy chatterboxes that just need a good man around to guide them into growing up properly. Smug and WASP-y, this is one title that can just be forgotten, thankfully.
Audio/Video/Extras
Like other titles from the Cinema Archives series there are no extra features available on this DVD. The MPEG-2 transfer tries its best with a fairly pockmarked print but balances out what it can as to minimize any damage to the original. The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is more than ample here as well, once again providing good support for the more melodramatic scenes in the film.
The Final Word:
The photography in the film is a nice upgrade from the stage play but, ultimately, Claudia is about as entertainingly excruciating as tearing one's eyelids off - which I nearly did while watching it.
