Claudine (film)
Claudine is a 1974 American film, produced by Third World Films and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Starring James Earl Jones, Diahann Carroll, and Lawrence HiltonJacobs, it is noted for being one of the few mainstream films, featuring an AfricanAmerican cast released during that time, which was not a blaxploitation film.
The film tells the story of Claudine Price Diahann Carroll, a single Black Harlem mother, living on welfare with six children, who finds love with a garbage collector, Rupert Marshall James Earl Jones, whom she calls Roop. The pairs relationship becomes complicated because of a number of factors. Among these are that the couple do not want to marry because they would not be able to support the children without welfare, and that the kids themselves, particularly eldest son Charles Lawrence HiltonJacobs, are apprehensive of Rupert, and believe that he will leave their mother just like her previous husbands had.Claudine and Rupert meet while both of them are at work. Rupert asks Claudine out on a date with him and Claudine accepts. When Rupert becomes invited inside Claudines apartment, the children are rude and vulgar towards Rupert. This is also the first time the audience meets the children and sees the inside of Claudines slumlike apartment. Later on in the film, the audience finds out that Claudine receives financial aid from the government through the welfare program. Throughout the film, Miss Kabak, the social worker, visits Claudine at her home and asks her if she is employed and if she is dating anyone. Claudine always denies Miss Kabak the truth and lies to her about being unemployed and single. If Claudine tells the truth and says that she is employed, the amount of financial aid she receives from the welfare program would decrease or she could also no longer receive any more financial aid. If Claudine dates anyone and receives gifts from her boyfriend, the social worker has to deduct any money or gifts Claudine is receiving from whomever she is dating. ........
Source: Wikipedia
