Vincent Canby of '' The New York Times '' wrote that while " not very far removed from a typical TV sitcom ... ' Claudine ' is a first-rate American comedy that gives stature to a popular form . The difference between it and dozens of television comedies is the difference between interests , to say nothing of talents . It is also the first major film about black life to consider the hopes , struggles , defeats and frustrations of blacks who are n't either supercops , supermusicians , superstuds , superpimps or superpushers . " Gene Siskel of the '' Chicago Tribune '' gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and wrote , " Carroll and Jones are accomplished players and provide the story with life and believability . Theirs is a funny and tender encounter ; there 's no way you can help but want them to stay together . " Charles Champlin of the '' Los Angeles Times '' called it " an engrossing and effective movie which is somehow able to exist simultaneously as a high-spirited romantic comedy and as a fictionalized documentary grim and angering in its implications . " Penelope Gilliatt of '' The New Yorker '' declared it " a sweet-spirited film , saddened and rollicking , full of courage . " Gary Arnold of '' The Washington Post '' praised Jones for " a playful , winning performance " but found the film " a mishmash of situation and romantic comedy , domestic and romantic melodrama , and rather grand standing social commentary , with the action interrupted in order to permit one character or another to get a position paper off the writers ' chests . " Tom Milne of '' The Monthly Film Bulletin '' criticized the film for what he called " its patronising blacks-are-really-just-like-us attitude , " stating , " Substitute white actors for the black cast , tone down the fashionably outspoken situations a little , and it would be just like one of those perennial Disney movies about happy families and the difficulty of living and loving in this problematic world . " Diahann Carroll was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress at the 47th Academy Awards . The movie was nominated for the Writers Guild of America award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen
47th Academy Awards
47th Academy Awards
Claudine (film)