Single mother Claudine (Diahann Carroll) lives with her six children, who she supports with welfare payments and clandestine work as a maid. After falling in love with garbage man Roop (James Earl Jones), Claudine finds her life beginning to change - in ways which might put this new relationship in jeopardy…
When I decided to do a deep dive into Black popular cinema of the seventies, I was not interested in just turning it into a project on Blaxploitation. After focusing on romance in January, I was keen to check out Claudine - I was initially planning to put this review out last month, but it took too long to write.
This movie is lovely.
It was also triggering - as someone who has been on welfare for extended periods, this movie captures the suffocating sense of claustrophobia and powerlessness that comes with the constant stream of check-ins.
I do not want to compare my situation with the title character. I was lucky to be single and have no dependents. But this movie hit that feeling of being both stuck in one place, and of having to work while not having enough to live on - this movie hits all these things without coming off as heavy-handed, and does not lose its way as a romantic comedy.
Dhianne Carroll was parachuted into the lead at the last minute when original lead Diana Sands (The Landlord) had to back out due to cancer (she would sadly pass away the same year of the film’s release).
Carroll is believably put upon - you can see her attempting to maintain a vague sense of calm with her kids - her explosions are inevitable, but carry the weariness of someone used to juggling multiple balls in the air.
James Earl Jones is so effortlessly charming as her new love Roop, one wishes he had more opportunities to continue in this mould.
Of course as the movie progresses, and the pressures on the couple build, his trajectory becomes the spine of the film’s third act.
Initially Claudine is sceptical at this extremely forward man who asks her out within seconds of seeing her for the first time.
While their meeting is a meet cute, their courtship is a slow dance.
And Roop also has to win over her kids - this is more of a war of attrition, with the kids showing a variety of different responses to this stranger.
When the relationship is discovered, Roop is willing to jump through the hoops the system throws in his way - but the movie is too smart to turn him into a saint.
As the couple attempt to navigate life together, his own familial obligations almost overwhelm him
Roop undergoes a breakdown and retreats from every aspect of life. Shockingly, this once proud, free-spirited man, is a shell of himself, intent on disappearing into a bottle.
This is one romantic comedy that is not immune to systemic racism or economic pressure.
His fall is a massive part of the film’s second half, and while I wanted to see how it resolved, I was very keen to see how the movie pulled out of this turn toward tragedy.
Ending with a wedding, a foot chase and a mass arrest, Claudine manages to pull it off.
Directed by former blacklistee John Berry (He Ran All The Way), Claudine was a big hit on release, and was lauded for standing out from the more action-oriented blaxploitation films which were cresting in the early seventies. Sadly, few black-centred romantic comedies would follow in its wake until Hollywood remembered this audience existed in the early nineties.
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