Claudine is a single mother in New York City who endures an exhausting commute to the suburbs where she works as a maid for wealthy families. In one carefully tended white community, she meets Roop, a charismatic but irresponsible garbage collector. Romance quickly ensues, but Claudine doubts that their relationship is good for her six children, and Rupert, despite his good nature, is reluctant to take on fatherhood.
Diahann Carroll James Earl Jones Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs Tamu Blackwell David Krüger Yvette Curtis Eric Jones Socorro Stephens Adam Wade C. Harrison Avery Mordecai Lawner Elisa Loti Roxie Roker Jay Van Leer Judy Mills Alyce Webb Lil Henderson Yvonne Sutherland Bernard Barrow Joan Kaye Stefan Gierasch Sandi Franklin Carlton Coleman Ralph Wilcox Art Evans Lee Dupree Terence Alexander Avis McCarther Carolyn Adams Show All…
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Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones have this fresh and earnest chemistry that shatters African-American cliches and is a source for the ultimate deconstruction of work opposing welfare. It’s not an inherently political story - in fact, it bounces between romance, defining motherly figures, and urban poverty - yet subtly (and not-so-subtly) includes persuasively impactful scenes that don’t provoke but rather empower. While I wouldn’t call it humorous, the film has its lighter and more comical moments, making it feel more human despite its inconsistent pacing. Jazzy, sweet and challenging, Claudine is a nice time capsule that has all the summery city vibes you’d want.
One of the few rare narrative films (outside of Fred Wiseman's literal Welfare—which, hey, was probably being filmed at the exact same time!) that depicts the struggles of those on welfare without any hint of liberal piety, condescension, or finger-wagging — and with all the strength it takes to survive such a hellishly anti-Black system. "You'll just call it fraud if I spend seven dollars on a bottle of whisky." At a certain point, John Berry (the once-blacklisted director, mind you) follows two of Claudine's children through the streets of Harlem, and you feel a surge of such indescribably pure joy course through his camera right to your veins — almost as if we were skating the city supreme. It's…
A smart and empathetic portrait of welfare that avoids criticizing assistance in itself, instead focusing on the double bind of white stereotypes about black recipients and the dehumanizing regulations imposed on them in a process marred by systemic racism. berry, recovering from the blacklist, ensures its critique of bureaucracy avoids rightwing gripes about big gov and instead aims at the right's usage of big gov to limit the rights of the black working class, with an ending that literally weds past failure of good behavior in a bad system to still simmering revolutionary fervor. A real gem.
John Berry updates his wonderful 1946 Joan Fontaine marriage vehicle to 1974 Black USA. James Earl Jones is the garbage man pursuing a relationship with single mother of six Diahann Carroll while the Welfare state mostly plays the Ralph Bellamy role. It is written in a grim deterministic manner while Berry directs with warm gaze fully attuned to its great actors vitality. The final result is a portrait of hopeful resilience under tougher version of everyday troubles.
This film feels conflicted. From its depiction of the welfare policies as unjust and parsimonious to the weight of capitalism on the family and on Roop, the film has a beating heart of social critique that at once suggests injustice at the heart of welfare's policies but also feels like it puts too much weight on welfare's role in de-powering African Americans. The duelling suggestions that it is the misapplication of welfare that is the problem and that being dependent on welfare is a negative situation does not serve to make the film feel more complex, but rather, muddled.
The idea, ultimately, seems to equate work with power, and while I am not entirely opposed to that, it seems to…
50th Anniversary!
Diahann Carroll was deservedly nominated for Best Actress in her role as a struggling mother of six children. In many ways she is more hindered than helped by the welfare system. She's not allowed to work. She has to itemize everything she buys. When the welfare inspector comes over things as simple as a rug or a toaster must be hidden. Welfare wants to see you living an existence of the bare minimum. What's really invasive is the control of Claudine's love life. Having a boyfriend is suspect. It's a problem if the man has too little money or too much money. You are being controlled by the state.
"Claudine" shows a system designed to keep Black families…
A charming, endearing, and skillfully handled piece of cinema. Even if it may have some pacing issues, it has enough charm and sentiment to retain my interest and keep me captivated with every passing second. At every turn, Diahann Carroll manages to embody independence and strong-will, while also redefining strength and eliciting the love of a mother. A touching celebration of family that masterfully mixes comedy and romance while tackling a wide range of important issues.
What a delightful surprise of a movie this was!
A romantic dramedy set in Harlem and featuring a beautiful, complex, independent Black woman as its central character would still be relatively rare if it was made TODAY, so I can only imagine how groundbreaking and inspiring it must have been when it came out in 1974. Especially for Black audiences craving diverse and realistic representations of their own lives and stories on film.
You know you're abandoning the world of conventional rom-com tropes and entering new, intriguing territory when the main obstacle to the film's central romance isn't some deep, dark secret or rival lover, but rather the intrusive bureaucracy of the US government's social welfare system.
At first glance,…
“I am married to the welfare man. That’s my husband, makes me beg for them pennies. A little starvation money. And if I can’t feed my kids it’s child neglect. Go out and get myself a little job on the side… if I don’t tell him then I’m cheatin’. If I stay home, then I’m lazy. You can’t win. Mr. Welfare, that is the nosiest husband in the world. I’d give anything to divorce that bastard.”
Every time the social worker arrives, Claudine and her six children hide their kettle, toaster, and flatiron. Even the carpet is rolled and hidden behind the curtains. Anything they ought not to have the social worker should not see. The system implicitly denies them…
Even though the sanguine, infectious bliss of John Berry's Claudine unfailingly operates from a sweetly compassionate and adequately affectionate plane, the situational gravitas of its squalid context confers a certain legitimate rage to the characters in this uplifting rom com; a film that handles the genre with its conventions and its platitudes. Nevertheless, the approach here is more ethnocultural than tritely populist in its social factors, rendering it singular in its inspirational progressive humanism.
Full Review here
I still don’t know if this is a romantic comedy.
Nobody answer that for me, I want to ponder that for the rest of my life.
Claudine (1974) is a movie I recently watched on YouTube. The storyline follows a woman with six children who one day falls for the garbage man. The two begin dating and start falling in love but quickly determine changing their circumstances to become a family is much tougher than verbally agreeing to it.
This movie is directed by John Berry (Chillers) and stars Diahann Carroll (Julia), James Earl Jones (Conan the Barbarian), Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (Roots), Tamu Blackwell (The Jeffersons) and David Kruger (Eden is West).
The storyline for this picture has tremendous depth and characters. The acting is out of this world and both Jones and Carroll deliver captivating performances. There's some great topics captured in here about welfare, the…
