[2] The film tells the story of Claudine Price, a single black Harlem mother, living on welfare with six children, who finds love with a garbage collector, Rupert "Roop" Marshall.

The pair's relationship is complicated by their poverty, the restrictions of the welfare system and the hostility of her children, particularly eldest son Charles, who believes that Roop will leave their mother just like her previous husbands had.

Adding to Claudine's stress and financial woes, her teenage daughter gets pregnant by a young man with no prospects for taking care of her or a baby.

Just before he is to announce his engagement to Claudine to the kids, Rupert is served papers for a court order relating to underpayment of child support of his own children; his work wages are garnished to pay the difference.

This is a major theme in the movie, which shows that, despite the stereotypes of a "Welfare Queen", this mother is neither lazy nor promiscuous but rather navigating a difficult situation.

Even though he understands that women like his mother face a severe struggle to break free from poverty and dependency, Charles opposes the welfare system because he believes it encourages passivity and discourages self-reliance.

Actor Ivan Dixon of Hogan's Heroes and Car Wash fame can be seen toward the end of the film in the crowd that follows Claudine as she hops into the police truck.

[9] 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.

"[10] 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.

"[11] 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.

"[13] 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.

"[14] 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.