Claudette Colbert (A Pyramid illustrated history of the movies) [Paperback]

William K Everson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 159 pages
• Publisher: Pyramid Publications; First Thus edition (1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0515039608
• ISBN-13: 978-0515039603
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,592,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Film Career of Claudette Colbert Profiled, June 6, 2010

By 

Tee (LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Claudette Colbert (A Pyramid illustrated history of the movies) (Paperback)

Claudette Colbert must be counted as one of the greatest stars of the American screen but astoundingly, there have only been three books written on this legendary star to date. The first was written back in 1976 as part of the 5x7" paperback "Ilustrated History of the Movies" series published by Pyramid Books. The Colbert tome was one of the few in the series written by a fairly well-known film historian, William K. Everson (among the other authors in the series were the young Leonard Maltin and Jeanine Basinger early in their writing careers). Alas, Mr. Everson apparently felt himself above the "norms" for the series and failed to conform to the layout of concise and rather detailed comments about the star's individual films and performances, often dismissing films in small paragraphs rather than analyzing them or Ms. Colbert's performance.

Worse, he seems excessively nit-picky at times, making astonishing statements like claiming the number of major films in the careers of such Colbert contemporaries as Dietrich, Loy, and Jean Arthur are much higher and that major directors seemed to avoid working with her, he also comments Colbert never placed higher than the back of the box office top ten (seemingly oblivious to the fact that few superstar movie queens ever made the list at all, including the forementioned ones.) Everson comes off a bit of a prig in the introductory biography chapters, claiming in private life that Colbert had the mouth of a "truck driver" for "gutter language" (an allegation I can't recall ever seeing anywhere else) and at another point hinting at suppressed scandals. This sort of commentary is totally inappropiate for a book series that is supposed to concentrate on screen performances.

The best thing about the book is the collection of photographs, including ones from Colbert's rarely seen early talkies. This book was published in 1976, two decades before Colbert's death but fifteen years after her last feature film. 1987's tv movie THE TWO MRS. GRENVILLES was her only subsequent filmed work so it's a nearly complete look at her film career. Everson is admiring of Colbert if excessively critical and one regrets his prediction that Colbert might return to the big screen at any moment regrettably wasn't true.