Silver Screen Magic with Claudette Colbert

Classic Hollywood star Claudette Colbert became a legend of the silver screen. Her career began on the stage before standing before the film cameras. She starred in many successful films throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In 1935 Colbert won the Academy Award for Best Actress in the romantic comedy “It Happened One Night.”

In 1934 came the Cecil B. DeMille epic “Cleopatra,” which starred Claudette Colbert in one of the earliest projects, before the iconic actress, Elizabeth Taylor. It starred Claudette Colbert, Warren William, and Henry Wilcoxon.

A retelling of the story of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII and based on the adaptation of historical material by Bartlett Cormack. Cleopatra (Colbert). Julius Caesar (Warren William) and Mark Antony (Henry Wilcoxon).

In 1939, legendary film director John Ford directed “Drums Along the Mohawk.” The movie starred Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert. It is based on the eponymous 1936 novel of the same name by Walter D. Edmonds. This was Ford’s first Technicolor feature and became a major box-office success.

The plot is set during the American Revolutionary War. Magdalena "Lana" Borst Martin (Colbert) and Gilbert "Gil" Martin (Fonda) portray a couple settled on the New York frontier and defend their farm from Loyalist and Native American attacks.

In 1934, Director Frank Capra directed “It Happened One Night,” an American romantic comedy. The screenplay by Robert Riskin is based on the August 1933 short story “Night Bus” by Samuel Hopkins Adams. It is considered a pre-code production and was the first of three films to win the “Big Five” Academy Awards—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The film stars Claudette Colbert as a pampered socialite who tries to get out from under her father’s thumb. She falls in love with a roguish reporter portrayed by Clark Gable.

In 1939 Director W.S. Van Dyke directed the screwball comedy “It’s a Wonderful World.” The movie starred James Stewart and Claudette Colbert.

The storyline is about PI Guy Johnson (James Stewart) assigned to watch over a rich man inclined to drink too much, Willie Heyward (Ernest Truex). Things go incredibly wrong with the PI accused of murder. His hope lies in poet Edwina Corday (Claudette Colbert) as a witness to the mishap.

In 1947 Director Chester Erskine directed the romantic comedy “The Egg and I,” which starred Fred MacMurray, Claudette Colbert, Marjorie Main, and Percy Kilbride as Ma and Pa Kettle.

The plot follows a young married couple, Betty MacDonald (Colbert) and Bob MacDonald (MacMurray), who become chicken farmers. Problems begin with the rundown farm, and then a rich single woman, Harriet Putnam (Louise Allbritton), with a new house and new farm equipment shows up. It becomes quite a pleasant romp.

In 1939 Director Mitchell Leisen directed the screwball comedy “Midnight.” It starred Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Francis Lederer, and Mary Astor.

The plot centers on Eve Peabody (Colbert), a showgirl stranded in Paris. She poses as a Hungarian baroness and is set up by millionaire Georges Flammarion (John Barrymore) to break up his wife’s, Helene Flammarion (Mary Astor), affair with another man, Jacques Picot (Francis Lederer), while being pursued by smitten cab driver Tibor Czerny (Don Ameche).

Director Ernst Lubitsch directs the pre-code comedy “The Smiling Lieutenant.” It starred Claudette Colbert, Maurice Chevalier, and Miriam Hopkins. It was written by Samson Raphaelson and Ernest Vaida from the operetta “Ein Walzertraum” by Oscar Straus. It is based on the novel “Nux the Prince Consort” by Hans Muller-Einigen.

The plot features the story of Niki, a charming lieutenant (Maurice Chevalier) who marries shy Princess Anna (Mariam Hopkins). He has a lover, violinist Franzi (Claudette Colbert). Later the two women find common ground in their feelings for him.