Claudette Colbert was not beautiful

Only ONE side of her was!

And she had no neck.

But she had one of the great voices of all time.

She was not a beauty, but I can see her having sex appeal.

With today's makeup techniques and a better hair style, she would probably be better looking. Did it never occur to her to ditch the bangs, I wonder.

Her mouth seems too small for the rest of the face.

You'd rather go home with that?

There were unbeautiful leading ladies during the golden age of Hollywood - Colbert, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Ida Lupino, quite a few others.

She has the face of a vintage doll baby.

Didn't this exact thread exist before, or am I having a huge and creepy dèja-vu?!

They called her "Three-Quarter Front Colby" for a reason. She knew her limitation, and made good with what she had, and knew better than the cameramen how to light and shoot herself.

Why does she have to be beautiful?!

She was a lez.

She looked her best in "Tomorrow is Forever" in Jean Louis costumes.

Claudette paying tribute to Frank Capra in 1982.

She lived to be 92, which was amazing since she smoked like a chimney.

Neither was Jean Harlow.

The '30s look has fallen out of favor, to put it mildly. Marcelled hair, huge eyes, penciled lines over shaved eyebrows, tiny Cupid's bow mouth...it's difficult to tell whether any of the "beauties" of the day would be considered beautiful today, if they were modernly styled. Today's standards of beauty are SO different.

I daresay future generations will wonder how on earth the Hadid kids were celebrated models.

She was slutty and naked in her milk bath in SIGN OF THE CROSS (32). She was sexy, even if not conventionally "pretty."

Oh Shit! R6 - That’s my mom’s baby doll from when she was a kid. She had it in her bedroom when I was growing up. “Lisa” creeped me out.

Did it never occur to you that you posted a picture of her without bangs to complain about her never wanting to ditch her bangs, R3?

I would characterize her as beautiful but not pretty.

As opposed to Shirley Jones and Natalie Wood, who were pretty but not beautiful.

I suppose it was the whole package. Her persona was warm and witty. She was very thin, looked great in clothes and moved elegantly. I wonder if people at the time placed that manufactured image into their world as an actual person known to them rather than how now perhaps we consume an image and experience it as something from a mass media entity. I wonder if these old stars became like friends- it would be a way of explaining how Joan Crawford kept getting fan mail and replied to it until the end.

Oh, the Wienie King!

Claudette Colbert = real name Emilie Claudette Chauchoin

I have always loved that dress at r14. You sent me off on a beautiful dress Google. Thank you.

R23 I love The Palm Beach Story, great movie, and both Colbert and hottie Joel McCrea were great in the film.

She and Stanwyck and my two absolute favorite actresses from classic Hollywood - with Jean Arthur a close third.

Nobody did “bemused” better than Claudette - “Since You Went Away” and “Parrish” are two prime examples.

Cleopatra : Together we could conquer the world.

Julius Caesar : Nice of you to include me.

"It Happened One Night" and "Roman Holiday" are almost tied for best rom-com ever. RH takes the prize, though, for its bittersweet, perfect ending.

By chance, I happened to re-watch "IHON" a couple of years ago. It never will stop holding up as a classic. I appreciated it even more than when I first saw it many years ago.

I realize now that Colbert impresses me more than Gable. She had to play the less sympathetic character compared to Gable's. He had the easier task than Colbert's to win the audience.

I LOVED her character's wedding gown at 3:03 and onward, designed by Robert Kalloch, whom, I must admit, I've never heard of of before I just now googled it.

She wears clothes beautifully in the 30s and 40s. In "the Palm Beach Story" she keeps changing in to spectacular couture outfits (especially after Rudy Vallee as the world's richest man takes her on a spending spree).

She is superb in screwball comedy.

JOEL McCREA: "I'd still like to know why I'm to be called Captain McGlue. Of all the nincompoopish – "

CLAUDETTE: "Wasn't that your mother's name?"

JOEL: "What – Captain McGlue? Really, Geraldine. Her name was McGrew. M-C-G-R-E-W!"

CLAUDETTE: "Oh, well, I'm sorry, darling. I remembered it as 'McGlue.'"

One of my favorite lines in Palm Beach Story is actually by Odette Myrtil in the clothing store scene when Rudy Vallee admits that he has never bought jewelry for a woman before and she says something like "Monsieur has denied himself one of the great pleasures of life:"

I tried to find the exact dialogue but had no luck.

I love that sales clerk! Certainly with stones! They are all THE RAGE!

"It Happened One Night " is on now on TCM.

I still favor Clark Gable in "It happened One Night". Here's the scene when he strips down (starting at 50 seconds). Audiences were shocked he wasn't wearing a tee-shirt. I guess a cotton dress shirt directly brushing nipples was a no-no. Tee-shirt sales across the country dropped dramatically after this was in the theaters.

That's a great scene, r35.

Agree with R1 about the voice. She was completely charming, a true blue Hollywood Movie Star and was captivating whenever she was on screen.

The bus scene in IHON where the passengers all sing "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" together is perhaps the most charming and wonderful scenes. We get so much in the one scene as far as character and plot, all of which play out without anyone describing it, or telling us their feelings, or really any of that. The camera tells the story while the characters all ride and sing. It is so effective and delightful.

She was effortlessly funny and stylish.

They were into that look in the 30s--Sylvia Sydney, for example. But they had style. What made Bette Davis so damned attractive? Not her features.

If you really want a treat, Watch "Midnight" with Claudette and the delicious Don Ameche. One of the great forgotten comedies of the 30s.

Don Ameche was handsome.

R32

at 47:50 the store scene begins

Very sexy tho which is way better than blandly pretty

She appeared with Noel Coward in an American adaptation of "Blithe Spirit." In his diaries he wrote he'd wring her neck, if she had one.

She had an Elegance about her that made her seem glamorous and approachable. My favorite movie of hers is "Since You Went Away" where she has to deal with daughter Shirley Temple and Jennifer Jones, cunty friend Agnes Moorehead, feisty made Hattie McDaniel (who steals every scene: "I wants my solitude and my pririvitation!"), cantankerous border Monty Woolley, a lovable Bulldog, flirtatious officer Joseph Cotten and a missing husband in action. It was a difficult year to choose best actress, but after Barbara Stanwyck, she remains my favorite for 1944.

Gowns by

Travis

Banton

That voice! All of the movies named in this thread are great - especially Palm Beach Story and Midnight.

I also love The Egg and I. City girl moves to the country with husband Fred MacMurray!

I still can't see her as the original choice for Margo in "All About Eve".

My breasts say otherwise.

r52 Boobies and spit curls.

[quote]She was not a beauty, but I can see her having sex appeal.

Just like me. And you gays, aren't drooling when you see me arm in arm with my last accessory? What's his name already. Oh yes, Pepe.

She wasn't classically beautiful but IMO she was sort of adorable and a damn good comedic actress. Leave my little CC alone!

I can easily see CC as Margo Channing. She would have been different, but wonderful, I'm sure.

R29, here she is in the wedding dress from IHON "all jacked up" as Randy would say. I hate that expression.

But she was divine at bumping donuts...

And oh the way she could eat pussy....

Just watched "Midnight". Completely charming.

Nitz, Pepe, nitz.

The only film I don't like her in (mainly because it is a bad movie in general) is the 1933 screwball comedy "Three-Cornered Moon" where most everybody is despicable. Her hairstyle makes her look like a cross between Betty Boop and Minnie Mouse.