Claudia

Another recent watch off the DVR was the movie Claudia.

Dorothy McGuire plays Claudia Naughton, a relatively young and naïve bride who has recently moved to a house in the country in Connecticut together with her husband, the well-to-do architect David (Robert Young). Claudia is disappointed that she isn't going to be around her mother, Mrs. Brown (Ina Claire) any more, and also worried when they arrive at the house and she hears what she thinks sounds like a stranger.

One of the things Claudia doesn't realize is just how much she's going to be missing Mom. Mom says that she has to catch the train back to New York, only telling David that the reason she has to get back in now rather than stay over a night is because she's got a weekend doctor's appointment. This obviously means something serious, and in this case, that's a possible case of cancer, which had a much worse prognosis back in those days than it does now -- in fact if she has the cancer she does, it'll be a death sentence.

Meanwhile, there are multiple other subplots running throughout the movie. The first involves David's sister Julia (Jean Howard), who brings a singer Daruschka (Olga Baclanova) with her. The two of them and Claudia start talking, and it results in Claudia thinking she's sold the house to Daruschka at a profit, something that's going to surprise David when he finds out.

Second is a neighbor, Jerry (Reginald Gardiner). He has car problems that cause him to stop at the house, and when he returns the next day, Claudia's flakiness results in her and Jerry winding up in what looks like a compromising situation that David can't understand when he sees them. To be fair, Jerry can't really understand it either.

And then there's the two servants, Fritz and Bertha. They and the noise at the beginning that Claudia thought was a stranger eventually come together, as do a plot point about the money from selling eggs going missing. Further, Bertha ultimately takes enough of a liking to Claudia to realize that Claudia is likely pregnant and should see a doctor, figuring things out before everybody -- including Claudia -- does.

Claudia is an odd little movie, in part because it's so stuck in its time or even earlier. The movie was released in 1943, but there's no reference whatsoever to that war (at least none that I caught), making it feel like it was set a few years earlier. Part of that is likely because it's based on stories first published in the 1930s. The other reason it's stuck in its time is because you'd never meet a woman like Claudia these days. Frankly I found her behavior incredibly irritating, and couldn't figure what any man would ever have seen in her.

The movie was rather popular on release, however, to the point that there was a sequel made, Claudia and David. So obviously some people quite liked it. It and the sequel are available on DVD courtesy of Fox's MOD scheme should you wish to watch.