Claudette Colbert : An Illustrated Biography [Hardcover]

Lawrence J. Quirk (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 212 pages
• Publisher: Crown Publishers Inc.; 1St Edition edition (May 22, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517556782
• ISBN-13: 978-0517556788
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #898,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could be much better, July 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Claudette Colbert : An Illustrated Biography (Hardcover)

Until a more detailed and thorough biography of Claudette Colbert comes along, this will have to do. It's a serviceable book, a standard condensed bio, with a lot of rare photos indifferently printed. One wishes the text was by Barry Paris and the photos came in a separate edition, in the coffee-table format. Yet one can't have everything, and if you love Claudette, it's nice to have this on your book shelf.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rare Salute to a Flawless Actress, October 29, 2005

By 

Tee (LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Claudette Colbert : An Illustrated Biography (Hardcover)

Claudette Colbert is one of the greatest stars in motion picture history, an Academy award winner, top ten box office star and she was voted the number 12 woman star of all-time by the American Film Institute yet astonishingly she has only had two books written about her awesome career. The reason for this perhaps is the same reason Claudette gave for never writing her autobiography, she had an amazingly calm and ordinary private life for a movie queen and was in love only twice (once to an actor in a brief romance that only lasted a few years and then to the reknowned physican Joel Pressman, a union that lasted from 1935 until Mr. Pressman's death in the early 1970's). This book concentrates on her film career and what an awesome career it was. The author is a well-known film historian/critic and interviewed Claudette and her associates many times through the years. It's interesting despite the legend of Claudette's vanity and generally only wanting to be photographed from a certain angle it appears everybody adored this warm-hearted and loving woman, qualities very much on display in her flawless film performances. Can you tell Miss Colbert is my number one favorite? Well she is but I do think I have a sharp critical eye and she got there not from glamour and beauty (both of which she had in abundance) but from her fascinating performances that hold up superbly today well over a half-century after they were first recorded. Yes this book could have been a little better but I'm very happy with it and the beautiful pictures of the eighty-plus Claudette and her warm wisdom on life and aging will fill you with as much good cheer as her movies. Just thinking about this lovely lady makes me happy and puts a smile on my face and that is a gift from not only the screen actress but also the flesh and blood woman. Rest in peace, dear lady.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wrong title, wrong focus, just wrong!, December 24, 2009

By 

Miss Yoka (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Claudette Colbert : An Illustrated Biography (Hardcover)

This book would be more accurately entitled "A Brief Outline of the Films of Claudette Colbert". The author obviously wished to present an extensive biography about Miss Colbert but fails in this respect, offering at times little more than a chronological compilation of movie summaries.

Author Quirk refers to a relative (another Quirk) who was once an editor of a movie mag, as if this should give his writing believability. His frequent use of slang is off-putting (i.e. on Frederic March: "March made no bones about his admiration for her".). Quirk's second-hand "knowledge" is also annoying ("'she spilled her guts far less than most people in her position,' Ruth Waterbury told me". Who is this Waterbury? Oh yes, yet another employee of that other Quirk's movie mag.)

Even more offensive is Quirk's blatant focus on sex ("I asked March if he responded emotionally and physically to her attractiveness."). Quirk seems to wish to find smut where there is no evidence of it. For example, this is his comment on Gary Cooper acting with Colbert: "Cooper failed to indicate if he felt their mutual sex chemistries meshed: both over the years kept a discreet veil over this aspect of their encounter." Huh? What encounter?

Superficial comments about her films and groundless innuendos about her sexual life create a book that lacks the humour, class, and beauty that was Claudette Colbert.

Claudette Colbert moved millions to laughter and tears. Do yourself a huge favour and watch "It Happened One Night" -- and enjoy the real magic that was Claudette Colbert. (The two-star rating is solely for the photographs within the book.)