OVP: Claudelle Inglish (1961)

Film: Claudelle Inglish (1961)

Stars: Diane McBain, Arthur Kennedy, Will Hutchins, Constance Ford, Claude Akins, Chad Everett

Director: Gordon Douglas

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Costume Design)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

In the early 1960's, film was starting a pretty steady migration from black-and-white & color being used interchangeably to the latter being predominant; by the end of the decade, black-and-white films would be used sparingly, to the point where they'd be a novelty for the most part in the 1970's.  This resulted in some oddities in the Oscar categories, like Costume Design, which distinguished between black-and-white and color for their nominations until 1966.  One of these oddities was Claudelle Inglish, a largely forgotten early 1960's melodrama about sexuality in a small town that got a nomination for costume design.  This was a recent random "cleaning out my DVR" screening, and will be today's film on the blog.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie focuses on Claudelle Inglish (McBain), a lovely young teenage girl who is the daughter of a poor sharecropper Clyde (Kennedy) and his miserable wife Jessie (Ford).  Claudelle wants to escape the horrendous marriage between Clyde & Jessie, the latter of whom has been resentful for years that Clyde never provided more money for their family.  Claudelle seems to want to repeat her mother's mistake when Linn (Everett), a handsome local boy, begins courting her, but there's a catch.  Linn is drafted into the army, and Claudelle, trying to secure his affections, sleeps with him before he goes off.  While he doesn't die in the army, he does marry another girl, making Claudelle heartbroken.  Claudelle decides (inexplicably) that the best revenge against Linn is to become a "bad girl" wearing makeup & provocative dresses while sleeping with all of the local boys if they buy her presents.  Jessie & Clyde don't know what to do with their suddenly sexually-awakened daughter, but she draws the attention of Clyde's boss ST Crawford (Akins) a man twice Claudelle's age who tries to court her, but she rebuffs him, despite her mother's insistence that she should seek out a wealthy man.  The film ends with Claudelle learning the error of her ways too late, after two of her beaus fight, with one killing the other, and Claudelle being murdered by the father of the slain boy...whom she had also slept with just the day before for a free dress.

Claudelle Inglish is not a good movie, even if it's a pretty titillating one.  McBain inhabits Claudelle with a clear movie star beauty (you can see why every guy in town is taken with her), but she's rarely more than pretty in the lead role, and she doesn't entirely know how to understand Claudelle & what's happening to her.  It doesn't help that she's saddled with a sanctimonious script that assumes that the only joy that Claudelle could get out of sex is getting pretty things from boys & trying to scorn Linn (who has no idea what is happening to Claudelle) rather than, you know, enjoying sex.  It's not that this isn't realistic (being a bit sexually adventurous after a breakup is something many have experienced), but we leave having very little understanding of Claudelle & the cruelty she inflicts as the film goes by, and they don't entirely know how to explain why she'll sleep with, say, the shopkeeper whom she has little interest in sexually for a new dress but not ST Crawford.  This lack of consistency is rough, and about the only person who feels like they're genuinely interesting is her mother Jessie, who repeatedly doesn't understand why her daughter won't use her beauty to trap wealth (rather than revenge), which is what she wishes she could do with it.

The film's Oscar nomination is not really earned, even if it's not a bad nomination.  Claudelle's wardrobe shifts dramatically as the film progresses, specifically a gorgeous white trousseau that initially is meant to be a wedding dress but eventually becomes a marker of both Claudelle and Jessie's adultery, as they wear it to entice men.  The rest of the costumes never stack up to this simple, chic gown, and so this nomination is mostly predicated on how drawn you are to this specific garment, which is great, but...one dress shouldn't warrant an Oscar citation.