Douglas Sirk’s IMITATION OF LIFE (1959)

Fun fact (and now inexcusable casting): Susan Kohner was half Jewish and half Mexican.

She's 84 this year.

38-year old Lana Turner playing a young, struggling ingenue was a bit of a stretch, as was her romance with 28-year old hot stud John Gavin.

Still, it was an enjoyable movie to watch with a truly tragic and heartbreaking ending.

Susan Kohner is the mother of producer and director brothers Chris and Paul Weitz.

When I was a very young kid, my mother would take me to one of the local theatres where old, classic movies were often shown. This was one of them. I loved it. Others she took me to see were A Star is Born, Calamity Jane, San Francisco, and The Best Years of Our Lives. Seeing these movies in a theatre setting was a delight to me.

R4 What a sweet memory!

I first saw this as a preteen in the 80’s in a middle school class. Bawled my eyes out while my classmates looked at me strangely.

I love how totally divorced from the actual New York theatre world of 1959 this movie is.

(Lora Meredith IS Alexandra del Lago in SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH!)

God, her crying at the end pissed me off so bad! NOW you care you ungrateful passing bitch! Her mother deserved better

Get real. Annie was a freaking maid! So why was her funeral something of JFK proportions?

The original was better.

R8 Bexause her employer was rich and loved her dearly like family. Plus Annie was a church lady who was belovwd by her community, thus the large turn out... at least that's how my child mind nfb justifies it

This was Lana's comeback after the Johnny Stompanato scandal.

Love me some Lana. Her “masterpiece” was Madame X.

Annie was a self-denying Christian lady who saved what little Miss Lora deigned to give her. She had her "funeral fund" at her local African-American bank, 2% interest.

Also, R13, it's Sirk's way of showing that she had another life, and was part of another community, all along, we just hadn't seen it. She wasn't "just" a maid.

This movie was so ahead of its time, as was the original.

R14 - exactly, and Lara, who lived with her, was completely clueless to the life her "friend" lived because of her self-centered nature. Lara was all about Lara.

It's been years I've seen the movie, but I remember one scene when Annie mentioned her friends at the church, to which Lara then says something like, "Annie, you have friends?" It's such a subtly ironic moment.

Also, the end is darker than some people realize. By Lara embracing Sarah Jane in the car, Sara Jane gets to have the white mother she always wanted. And check out Susie's expression as she sits to the side.

It's a sad ending on so many levels.

R16 I never caught that!

Some 1950s movies are more subversive than they appear.

Scratch the surface, and you'll find some really interesting things there.

R16, who's Lara? Is it Lana or Lora?

I'd love to see this film in a theatre. R4 you lucky dog.

[quote]"It's the best role since Scarlett O'Hara."

I remember being amused by the title of the play Lana was supposedly in.

I was never sure if I found the Chrysler Imperial limousine or John Gavin more attractive.

Both were classics.

John Gavin was gogeous.

R23 He really was.

I'm just glad that they dropped the name Peola.

Fredi Washington was astounding in the original. (Fun fact: she was just three years younger than Louise Beavers).

Fredi Washington...

I've always preferred the earlier Claudette Colbert version. The 1930s Great Depression seems like a more believable time period for the story.

Colbert was very brave to take on the role of a mother of a young woman when she was at the height of her career stardom as a leading lady. She made this film the same year she won an Oscar for It Happened One Night, one of the rare leading roles to win the award for a comedy. And, as if that wasn't enough, 1934 was also the year she starred as Cleopatra, directed by Cecil B. de Mille. Now, that's range!

Why has no one mentioned Sandra Dee!!!!

Susan Kohner is giving me Christina Ricci in that funeral scene.

My favorite part is when Troy Donahue taught that whore a lesson!

The role doesn't start out as the mother of a young woman, r28. And when their daughters became young women, Claudette and Lana didn't look older...just more sophisticated. That's Fannie Hurst for you. Now when you do Ferber...you look older.

Copy that, r32!

R31 That scene is so brutal. Disturbing even today.

Fredi Washington was offered a chance at A-list stardom if she agreed to pass as white, but she refused.

Regardless of her mother being active "in the church", she had an awfully elaborate and overly attended funeral. People lining the streets. hanging from their windows...for a maid ?

Jesus, R36, get into the spirit of the piece.

Annie: "Now, go on and take this tray into Miss Lora and her guests..." Sarah Jane: "Why, CERTAINLY....ah dun fixeded y'all a mess uh' crawdaddies, Miz Lora, fo' you an' 'yo friends!" Lora: "What an interesting trick, Sarah Jane, wherever did YOU LEARN IT?" Sarah Jane: "Why, ain't no trick t' totin', Miz Lora. My mammy done learnt it from ol' Massa fo' she belong to YOU!".

I probably got some of it wrong but that scene always cracks me up.

Don't forget Mahalia, r36!

"It never occurred to me that you had any friends..."

[quote] Also, the end is darker than some people realize. By Lara embracing Sarah Jane in the car, Sara Jane gets to have the white mother she always wanted. And check out Susie's expression as she sits to the side.

I feel like this ending has influenced so many other endings, whether consciously or not. The darkest part of it is that it's a temporary moment--they are brought together in this moment but it is temporary. Afterwards, they will all revert to their same old confused, superficial lives.

[quote] Some 1950s movies are more subversive than they appear.

I'm 34 and I"ve heard all about how the 70s is supposedly the greatest decade of film ever. But I don't feel that way. Sure, there are films from the 70s I love--especially The Godfather movies and Taxi Driver--but I think the 50s and 60s (mainly for European film) were far superior. You start to see more natural acting in the 50s and moies from that decade aren't explicit in the way films from the 70s onwards are. I've seen my share of violent, sexual movies and I actually don't care to see that in the film anymore. I can see sex in porn, but when it comes to movies, I like more creative expression. The great 50s film like Kiss Me Deadly excel at that.

I remember watching some '40s movie (maybe Hitchcock's "Saboteur?") and there was a scene in a commercial kitchen where the set decorator decided to stock it with boxes of Aunt Delilah's pancake mix. I don't know if that was supposed to be an "in" joke, or whether they were just being frugal and using old props that were lying around the studio at the time.

Good catch, r43. I'd assume it was the latter.

When I was a teenager in the 80s, my mother the night owl woke me up in the middle of the night to watch this. I had never heard of it, and at first I thought it was really lame, but by the end I was a blubbering mess. Mom knew I would appreciate it. I still watch it every few years, and I always think of my mom.

I miss her.

The Opening...

* MISS TURNER'S JEWELS by LAYKIN et CIE *

Fredi and Louise are everything. The remake sucks.

We're SORRY, r48, we're SORRY!!!

The 1959 version was one of my grandmother's favorites. Especially when Mahalia Jackson sings at the end. Grandma would always start weeping.

Whenever I think of Mahalia Jackson, I think of those commercials that used to air when I was a kid for record albums from obscure or has-been singers.

I remember the ad for her album. The narrator was a black preacher-looking guy with a deep voice who said, "Mahalis is no longer with us."

I would think, "Who the hell is Mahalia Jackson?"

A great, r51...

When Hattie McDaniel was asked if it was demeaning to play maids. She said she's rather play one for $700 a week, then be one for $7.00.

That was lovely r45.

Thank you.

I'm going up, Up and UP!

"Annie, ANNIE..............AAAAAANNNNNNIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUUUUUUgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahahh....!!!!!" :(

R38 I just watched the movie (again) today. I had to play that scene twice, it was so good.

Lana overacted that death scene with Annie, but I think that Douglas Sirk meant for her to.

Why was this his last Hollywood film? This movie helped to save Universal.

Betty, again scooping Disney. She went with red hair in the role.

After watching this movie when I was younger I told my family I wanted an Imitation of Life funeral like Annie had. Casket drawn by horses. A black woman singing Trouble of the World. Random bi-racial woman running towards my casket calling out Momma. They thought I was joking.

R38 No No No! It's:

[Sarah Jane enters carrying a serving tray on her head]

Sarah Jane : [affected Southern Negro accent] Fetched y'all up a mess 'a crawdads, Miss Lora... fo' you an' yo' friends!

Lora : Well, that's quite a trick, Sarah Jane... where did you learn it?

Sarah Jane : [affected Southern Negro accent] Oh, 'tain't no trick ta' totin', Miss Lora! I learned it from my mammy, an' she learned it from ol' massa, 'fo' she belonged to you...

R38 No No No! It's:

[Sarah Jane enters carrying a serving tray on her head]

Sarah Jane : [affected Southern Negro accent] Fetched y'all up a mess 'a crawdads, Miss Lora... fo' you an' yo' friends!

Lora : Well, that's quite a trick, Sarah Jane... where did you learn it?

Sarah Jane : [affected Southern Negro accent] Oh, 'tain't no trick ta' totin', Miss Lora! I learned it from my mammy, an' she learned it from ol' massa, 'fo' she belonged to you...

Oh goodness. Did I put that in *this* thread. Sorry.

Everybody wanted to fuck Steve: Lora, Susie, Sarah Jane. Hell, I bet he even made Annie feel a little tingly "down there"

I believe the term you're looking for, r64, is....dreamy.

The late period Lana Turner was so blobby.... she was like a marshmallow. Her emotions, everything.

She's so blandly fake I can barely stand to watch her in those roles.

I like the original better too. In the original she was part of the reason they were rich. Kind of shitty that she was still a maid.

I love Lana Turner and Sandra Dee. To me as a young starstruck kid, they were the ultimate glamorous movie stars. They wear such beautiful dresses in this film.

"Miss Turner's Jewels" - how glamorous that sounds.

My mom, who had me at eighteen, would always watch this movie with me. We would both cry at the end.

My favorite part is still the nightclub scene, with Susan Kohner doing that bizarre "slutty" mime show with the other chorus girls as Juanita Moore looks on in horror.

Those scenes of daughters doing slutty numbers (and singing about “pie-anas”) while estranged mothers looked on in horror were kind of a thing in those old weepers. I guess it would be the equivalent of watching the daughter work a stripper pole today.

R73 Preaching to the choir, hon.

[quote]Hell, I bet he even made Annie feel a little tingly "down there"

Miss Mahalia was probably creaming her panties too.

[quote] She's so blandly fake I can barely stand to watch her in those roles.

Ironic moment: Sandra Dee says to Lana Turner, "Oh mother, stop acting!"

Meanwhile, Sandra Dee needed a few tranquilizers. So fucking shrill.

[quote] After watching this movie when I was younger I told my family I wanted an Imitation of Life funeral like Annie had. Casket drawn by horses. A black woman singing Trouble of the World. Random bi-racial woman running towards my casket calling out Momma. They thought I was joking.

😂 I love you.

[quote] My favorite part is still the nightclub scene, with Susan Kohner doing that bizarre "slutty" mime show with the other chorus girls as Juanita Moore looks on in horror.

Omg, yes! She’s doing this strange undulating thing.

R36 et al

You and the rest just don't have a clue, nope not a single one.

It was the AA local community that turned out en masse for Annie. Notice there are only a few whites in crowd and even then most of them were LE, even a few police on horseback were AA men.

AA communities in 1950's just as before and long after will turn out in great numbers for a pillar of their community, and Annie surely fit that bill. She had a quiet dignity and never though of herself, always others. On her deathbed we learn she always managed to give a little something to others (like the milkman), even when things were tight.

So GD what Annie was "a maid"; what do you think the other women in that crowd/community did for a living? They sure as hell weren't high paid executive secretaries...

Besides Annie paid for her funeral, telling Miss. Laura "when all my bills have been paid I want you to give what was is left to Sarah Jane...." What "bills" did you think she was speaking about? AMEX?

R80 You’re making me emotional for Annie all over again 😭

It doesn’t help that I just finished the utterly gut-wrenching “How did you cope with the death of your parent(s)?” thread and have the following song on a loop:

About ten years before Imitation of Life Hollywood gave us another mulatto passing for white who faced trails and tribulations. Pinky!

Unlike Sarah Jane however Pinky could have kept her man (the gorgeous William Lundigan), but chose another path instead.

[quote] When I was a very young kid, my mother would take me to one of the local theatres where old, classic movies were often shown.

I dragged my mother to take me to one of those places in the early 1960s, R4. It was called The Gaeity Picture Theatre!

In showdown between Sarah Jane and Veda Pierce, Veda should be the one to die, right?

I looooooove Lana's made it big low slung house and the outfit she wears to hang out on her huge curved sofa. She swishes one side of the dress (is it a dress?) around as she sits, so that it is all laid out beside her.

Googly eyes! I love this little 'round the house outfit more than her more glamourous evening gowns!

R36, Annie’s dying wish was to receive an elaborate, traditional funeral. The scene shows that Miss Lora honored that wish.

In the horsedrawn era, funerals featured black hearses drawn by black horses. White horses—or sometimes white ponies—drew the white hearse of the maiden, the child, or the infant symbolizing innocence or purity. In this case, they could symbolize Annie’s purity of heart.

White horses were used at state funerals. President Lincoln’s hearse was drawn by white horses.

Funerals with hearses drawn by horses are still popular in the African-American community today. The arrangements for the funeral of U.S. Rep. John Lewis, which was conducted over several days in July 2020, were handled by the Willie A. Watkins Funeral Home of Atlanta. The Watkins Home is known for their use of horses and the choreographed movements of staff. Watkins handles hundreds of funerals every year and many include the use of horsedrawn hearses.

[quote]r80 It was the AA local community that turned out en masse for Annie.

She didn't seem like an alcoholic.

Showbiz never ceases to amaze me. Just learned that Marilyn Monroe's favored designer, William Travilla, was married to Dona Drake, who passed for white as a Mexican-American, but played Native-American in that camp fave BEYOND THE FOREST (49), as Bette Davis's scene-stealing sloppy housekeeper.

Also: there's a truly tragic story in Douglas Sirk's half-Jewish son, who became a twink star in Third Reich cinema, fell out of favor with Goebbels, and was sent to die on the Eastern Front.

Correction: Sirk's son was not half-Jewish, but the product of his first marriage to a Nazi. Sirk's second wife was Jewish, so he lost custody of the kid and never saw him again.

R87 /R88 Wow.

"Annie, you can't die. I won't LET you!"

r84 - That's a hostess pants ensemble.

*

r76 - Sandra Dee says to Lana Turner, "Oh mother, stop acting!"

Lana Turner says to Sandra Dee: "Oh Sandra, START acting!"

Interesting bit from an old thread: According to the DVD commentary, Douglas Sirk encouraged, or rather tricked, Lana Turner into playing Lora as a self-absorbed cunt—i.e., basically playing herself—when she actually thought she was giving a sympathetic performance.

Hasn't Cheryl Cane said that Lana was a good mother and pro gay? Alright by me.

After what Cheryl did for Mama with the knife, I think Lana would say just about anything

For the few who actually like Lana Turner - - I am not one of her FAAAAAAAANNNNS! - - this is complimentary toward her (utter boringness)

R16 in my version, as soon as they got home, Lara gave the little hateful bitch a mop and said, "you can start in the bathroom."

R92 In the book about Henry Willson, someone once described Lana Turner as an actress. Henry quickly corrected them and said, "Lana is no actress. She's a movie star."

R93 Cheryl said that after everything that happened with Stompanato, her lesbianism was not an issue with Lana.

[quote] That's a hostess pants ensemble.

Where are the ballet slippers and crushy belt?

I loved the outfit that Lora Meredith wore to Susie’s graduation! Complete with turban 👳 and sunglasses 🕶.

I'm watching it now! Just finished the scene where Lana nearly gets #metoo'd with that creepy agent. LOVE that they have made several references to her being a little too old to start an acting career LOL

"Also: there's a truly tragic story in Douglas Sirk's half-Jewish son, who became a twink star in Third Reich cinema, fell out of favor with Goebbels, and was sent to die on the Eastern Front."

Wait a minute... could Sirk have been STRAIGHT???????

Wasn't it because of Lana's close relationship with Ava that Sinatra shouted out at them " Bunch Of Lesbians" when he found the ladies together in a super club?

JESUS FUCK ! John Gavin is one fine hunk of man! He should have been a bigger star than Rock Hudson.

Was surprised to learn his real name is Juan Apablasa and was of Mexican descent.

Which is better -- the original 1934 version or the Lana Turner one?

Having just finished watching the latter, I was hoping the ending would be more powerful and cause me to sob. It didn't, but then I'm pretty dead inside.

I thought they'd tell the daughter she wasn't allowed in the funeral because it was for family members only and that she clearly wasn't Annie's daughter, finally getting her wish.

R105 You cold hearted bitch.

I prefer the latter but know some prefer the former.

What are movies that make you cry?

I cried at Terms of Endearment

Why didn’t Susan Kohner have a bigger career. She was so good in this film. Too similar looking to Natalie Wood?

R105 I like the story of the original but find the remake more enjoyable if that makes sense. The weird story changes they made in the Lana version didn't seem necessary.

R108 I always thought she looked a bit like Wood, too. She amazing in this film.

R104 definitely a hunk, but stiff as a board! Rock was no master thespian either, but I can’t see Gavin being as charming and knowing in those Doris Day comedies as Rock

The harrowing scene.

Whatever happened to Susan Kohner?

The overblown funeral is not true to life, but that never bothered me for a second. Douglas Sirk's films are always stylized and over the top.

[quote] Whatever happened to Susan Kohner?

She got married and had kids. One of them is Chris Weisz, the director of "American Pie."

Yeah R114 anyone looking for realism should steer clear of Douglas Sirk melodramas

[quote] Juan Apablasa

No, it's Appa-Ba-Llasa!.

When you get to the second syllable you slap your knee and shout Ole!

R104 He became US Ambassador to Mexico under Reagan.

He did well.

Oh, R112! You should have warned us beforehand that that scene contains the 'N-Word'!

[quote] John Gavin is one fine hunk of man! He should have been a bigger star than Rock Hudson.

He wasn't much of an actor...at all. He was a hunk, all right; a hunk of wood.

I was most impressed with the little girl who played the younger Sarah Jane (Karin Dicker). She only acted for a couple years, but her performance stands out from all the breathless overacting in the movie. Her tears at not having a home to go to is heartbreaking. Her naturalistic acting has the right mix of sadness and bitterness.

R120 I'd have loved to have seen his wood.

R120 But Hudson was a hunk of wood also. I'd like to see those two hunks of wood in the same room.

Rock's acting got better as he aged.

R122, you can catch a glimpse of his peen in Sparticus. It is the scene set in the bathhouse.

[quote]Fredi Washington was offered a chance at A-list stardom if she agreed to pass as white, but she refused.

Because no one would have ever found out...

Call Connie and ask if she has pics, r122.

R125 I've seen Spartacus and I can't recall seeing his peen.

[quote] I can't recall seeing his peen

Me neither.

Criterion really should release this.

Universal wasn't saved by "Imitation of Life". They had sold their studio property to MCA the year before for MCA's tv subsidiary and MCA (the big talent agency) basically staffed their successful A product like the Doris Day films and bought Universal itself a few years later. If anything saved Universal, it was MCA and the production of its tv shows.

Sirk was in his 60s, he'd been a refugee, he'd been making high gloss melodramas that were dismissed as schlock despite their commercial success. It was time to retire and he wanted to be back in Europe.

R112 That jaunty music while she is getting slapped and called the N-word is an odd choice.

R132, I saw something similar is this horrific opus about a UK women's prison called [italic]So Evil, So Young[/italic]. It starred Jill Ireland, early in her career in a [italic]Caged[/italic]-like melodrama about a girl being arrested as an accessory and put in prison. She violated some prison rule and was banished to solitary. But the scene was so awfully done - the matrons simply took her by her hands as if she were some petulant boarding school coed, leading her down to solitary, with this Take Five like music playing in the background. It was a hoot. The film has the potential to become a DL favorite if I can find it.

Not that difficult to find, r133...

Sirk's Third Reich flims starring baritone-voiced Nazi fave Zarah Leander (HABANERA and TO THE NEW SHORES) are, if anything, even more OTT fabulous than his Ross Hunter movies.

Why did Douglas Sirk hang it up after this movie? He was in his early 60s -- just ready to retire or ?

For saving me the trouble r134, I thank you bunches. This flick is a hoot.

1 of 3 parts

I heard Kohner speak at a showing of the film and she said the confrontation scene with Troy was much more violent as originally filmed and it had to be reshot for the censors. She also said the Las Vegas number was an actual number being performed in one of the nightclubs and she just took the place of one of the show girls.

There's Always Tomorrow is another great Sirk 50's melodrama showing the dark side of the American dream with a terrific pairing of Stanwyck and MacMurray and. Fred again showing off how good an actor he was when you grew up with him in My Three Sons and Disney films. Sirk knew how to make a reunited family ending downright depressing and creepy and getting away with it.

The premiere ... which looks like a surprisingly low key affair. (Natalie Wood is dressed like a 40-year-old, for some reason.)

I normally avoid Ross Hunter Woman's Pictures like this but what does the title 'Imitation of Life' really mean?

Is it saying that having the ability to wear silk evening gowns and chi-chi hostess pants ensembles and having servants is merely an 'Existence' rather than a 'Life'.

I take the title to mean that colored people (as called in the film!) had a different life than white people.

A few of Fannie Hurst's books were re-issued in new paperbacks a couple of years ago and I chose to read Back Street over Imitation of Life because I didn't know the story. What a tearjerker! The lead character is a woman who gives up her whole life as a successful career woman just to be the sheltered mistress of a successful married politician. He takes good care of her and she's very noble and dignified....until he dies and she's left with nothing. And her life goes on for another 20 years, just getting worse and worse. Horribly sad.

Made into a film 3 times, finally by Ross Hunter with suffering Susan Hayward and, who else, handsome John Gavin. But I've yet to see the film.

Fanny Hurst also wrote [italic]Humoresque[/italic], which was made into a 1920 film (which I think is lost, I'm not sure) and better known as the Joan Crawford-John Garfield film from 1946, which bears no resemblance at all to the story.

I want opinions on “I Want to Live!”.

Now, bitches. Snap, snap.

Oh no, “I Want to Live!” is only in black and white.

All this talk of Imitation of Life so I watched it (again) on Peacock tonight.

Forgot there was a Christmas scene so this is now a Christmas movie, just like Lethal Weapon is.

At one point Annie asked Sarah Jane how negro teacher's college was going and Sarah Jane said she wasnt going. It got me thinking about the black teachers I had in school. I wonder if they too had to attend a negro teacher's college. rather than a regular college. I guess if a classy place like New York City had segregated colleges in 1959 so must have New Jersey.

What do you think happened to Sarah Jane eventually? Alcoholism, drugs? Did she marry well?

I think Sarah Jane married a middle-class white man and when she had kids, she started ironing their hair and yelling at them to stay out of the sun when they were about a month old. And when one of her children made friends with a black schoolmate of the opposite sex she freaked out and started screaming that none of HER kids were gonna marry a goddamn nigger! By this point it was the late 1960s and everyone in the LA suburb where she lived supported Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement, and all the PTA moms started gossipping about her being a racist and shunned her.

Why not,

Troy Donahue comes back to her, apologies profusely for using the n word and marries her because it truly doesn't matter he loves her so much. They move to Jersey, he gets a job with the school board in Patterson while she performs theatricals for the local community theater. Then the civil rights movement come to Patterson, the violent riots tear the city apart and they realize their love cannot survive a racial hatred that ironically ends their marriage. Sarah Jane accepts her identity as a biracial woman returns to school and eventually finds a position on the faculty of Rutgers at Newark teaching black studies. Troy leaves Patterson makes love to Henry Wilson and then makes Rome Adventure with Suzanne Pleshette and they get married.

Blacks began arriving at Columbia in early part of 1900's. No it wasn't easy for them, but never the less...

More:

Hunter College almost from start admitted women of color (it was founded as a women's college).

First black student graduated NYU in 1848, and first POC hired as a professor was in 1934.

When I heard the song “I’m Livin’ in Shame” by Diana Ross & the Supremes I was immediately reminded of this film and sure enough it inspired the song. Also made me think of Stella Dallas too.

Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner were memorable because they had real characters to play. Kohner’s father was a top movie agent and she later married John Weisz, a top haberdasher.

R148

With her mother now dead, and no siblings to give her game away Sarah Jane could move to NYC, LA or any other large urban American city and have lead a decent life "passing". Lord knows many other such high toned AA men and women did at that time....

Not all white men (of any European background) would have behaved like Frankie, Again in Hollywood's previous treatment of a light skinned woman of color passing (Pinkie released in 1949), the handsome and successful William Lundigan as Dr. Thomas "Tom" Adams didn't mind about his gf being "black" and was willing to go out on various limbs in support.

Am saying by any means things were easy, no far from it, but never the less not outside realms of possibility.

Linked story is one of the more famous interracial marriage stories, but there are many more untold. Elder lesbians and gays from old West Village told of at least two interracial couples who lived in area back in the day. West Village being what it was then on whole they were welcomed, at least weren't bothered. WV back then was one of the few places interracial couples could live, even Harlem by and large wasn't welcoming.

I love this film! It was on late one Saturday night and my mom let me stay up and and watch it with her. I became hooked on Mahalia Jackson after watching it the first time.

Yes, one realizes it is fiction, but if you look at time line of Tom and Helen Willis (the Jeffersons), they would have had to met and married in 1950's to have children in their 20's by 1970's.

That Tom Willis managed to do well enough in publishing game to live on the UES (yes, I know not the rich heartland, but roll with it), means he didn't suffer too much from his interracial marriage.

I prefer the Claudette Colbert version of "Imitation of Life" and find the later Lana Turner version too overwrought. Plus, the added factor of Fredi Washington playing Peola adds a layer of tragic subtext to the performance.

Washington was a light-skinned African American who could have passed (as Peola did) if she had wanted to, but she made a brave choice not to and accept a more difficult life as an African American in a racist America instead.

I love this film. It's one of the few films that causes me to tear up. The others; "Dark Victory." That death scene that Bette Davis did always gets me. Then there is "The Color Purple" when the husband is ripping the two sisters from each others arms.... MMPH! Too much!

Anyway, Juanita Moore's death scene always gets me. Especially if you come from a religious background (particularly the Black Southern Baptist church) .... you know where she was pulling that performance from. She should have won the OSCAR!

There's a very good book by Lawrence Otis Graham titled; "Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class" (1999), that really discusses the classism and colorism that is within the Black community itself. A bit in the book that sticks out in my mind is when a Black mother dies and all of her family are at her funeral and burial. A grandchild of that mother asks her mother who was that White man that was attending her grandmother's funeral and burial. The child was told that it was her Uncle who had left home long ago and no one had ever seen or heard from again until that. Obviously, he left the community and passed as White. But, when his mother died he came back to pay his respects.

R161 this film gets me too. The regret from the daughter as she can no longer say what she’d like to her mother. Very powerful, Whats Eating Gilbert Grape? also gets me a little but not quite like this one.

There is a late 40's or 50's film about a family that passed for White. It too was made during the time of these films ie "Pinky;" "Imitation of Life;" etc. But, I don't remember the name of it. Anyway, I found the following on YouTube. It's titled; "Passing"

[quote]Yes, one realizes it is fiction, but if you look at time line of Tom and Helen Willis (the Jeffersons), they would have had to met and married in 1950's to have children in their 20's by 1970's. That Tom Willis managed to do well enough in publishing game to live on the UES (yes, I know not the rich heartland, but roll with it), means he didn't suffer too much from his interracial marriage.

But, "The Jeffersons" dealt with the issue of colorism. Jenny was jealous of her brother because he could pass.

Susan Kohner is the last surviving cast member - as far as the leads go.

I introduced this movie to a coworker several years ago. She enjoyed it but thought it strange that Sarah Jane left her mother to become a two-bit showgirl in some seedy nightclub. Like if you're going to pass as white, why not become a teacher, a nurse or some rich man's wife? Why squander your white-passing privilege on being a stripper. I thought that was an interesting observation.

Maybe the Sarah thought that the crappy nightclub was her ticket to a career in acting or showbiz, like Lora.

Because if she wanted to be an actress, then well, passing was just about her only hope of a career in acting in those days. Most black actresses spent their careers playing maids and cooks.

R165 and R166 I just took that to mean that she was already damaged by her experiences so had nothing more to lose. If it was made today maybe a descent into prostitution.

Sarah Jane was hot in the panties too! She wanted the love of a man--a WHITE man. Being filled by a White cock would only confirm and underscore her fulfillment and desires of being White.

Then she should have made a play for Steve!

If Sarah Jane had lived her life passing for white in the sequel to IMITATION OF LIFE, she would have married an affluent white man, but then make damn sure she never, ever got pregnant.

On a related note: Nella Larsen's novel PASSING is one of the greatest works of African-American literature.

The late New York Time critic Anatole Broyard came from a mixed-race family in New Orleans. He spent his life in New York passing as white. His daughter wrote an excellent family biography after his death, called One Drop.

Only in America would she be considered black, which is ridiculous. In Latin America or even some places in Europe, she could live freely as a white woman if she chose to.

Younger posters here might be interested to know that when the film GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER premiered in 1967, the interracial marriage between Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton was still thought by many audiences shocking and selfish, as they weren't considering the effect it would have on generations to come. It all seems rather quaint now.

Well... that's the operative word, R172. "She could live FREELY" as white woman.".

[quote]It all seems quaint now.

Now, they all want their own little Obama's. John McCain, John Bieber, Mitt Romney, and even my good girlfriend Betty over there I'm the UK....

Many more too!

R175 ???

MMPH... autocorrect...

One of Mitt Romney's sons adopted a black child.

John McCain and his wife adopted a colored child. Also, one of McCain's sons married a Black woman.

John Boener's (former speaker of the House, if this autocorrect s again) daughter married a stone cold rastafarian. Johnny is so happy and proud of his little grandson

And, we all know about Betty and her grandson, Archie.

R177 How many of those examples have been successful?

I looked up Fredi Washington's career, and as I had feared, she struggled to get work in acting. She looked white, so she couldn't pay the bills by playing black maids like most of her peers, but producers didn't want to cast her as a white girl because she didn't want to pass. Well, that's changed at least, Hollywood is now perfectly willing to cast beautiful women who look white as white women or women, of no specified ancestry, so gals like Rashida Jones and Jennifer Beals have been able to work and have long careers in acting.

Woo hooo, what progress! We've made the acting world safe for beautiful women who look white!

It was sad that MGM couldn't (or wouldn't) cast Lena Horne as the mulatto who passes as white torch singer Julie LaVerne in 1951's Showboat. As the character is married to a white man in the film the censors would have forbidden a mixed relationship onscreen even though that's what the story was about.

Ava Gardner, of course, ultimately played the role. Do you think at that time Lena could have been believable as a black woman passing as white?

Lena wanted to play the lead in PINKY as well, and they gave that to Jeanne Crain because they didn't want Lena to do love scenes with the white actor playing Pinky's fiancee.

Max Factor created "Light Egyptian" makeup for Lena when they were going to pass her off as Latin American. It ended up being used on white actresses to make their skin a shade darker. I'm sure Lena would have allowed it to be used on her if she were playing a light-skinned black character.

Ava Gardner singing "Can't Help Loving That Man Of Mine" in her own voice. Not that bad, but she was still dubbed in movie by Annette Warren

Believe it is in one of those PBS programs about history of MGM Lena Horne speaks of Show Boat and how she was happy her "good friend" Ava Gardner got the role instead of herself.

Notes from YT video give full details....

I don't think it was necessarily a case of the studio not wanting to cast Lena. The censors then wouldn't have allowed it if a marital or sexual or even romantic relationship was portrayed. I know it makes no sense as that was the whole point of the film Pinky but it was considered absolutely forbidden.

I imagine young people don't realize that black actors rarely were seen on TV until the mid-1960s unless they were a celebrity like Ella Fitzgerald or Nat King Cole or in the rare comedy like Beulah or Amos and Andy, which had no white actors in them. They very rarely were cast in regular roles and never in commercials.

R184

Agree, which is also why scores if not hundreds of high toned POC in Hollywood were cast in same "black" films as their darker peers. Remember at that time studios still owned their movie theaters and all heck would have broken out if word got out a "passing" POC was in any way intimate on screen with a "white" actor/actress.

This quote from Lena Horne's IMDB page sums things up:

"By now Lena had signed with MGM but, unfortunately for her, the pictures were shot so that her scenes could be cut out when they were shown in the South since most theaters in the South refused to show films that portrayed blacks in anything other than subservient roles to whites. Most movie studios did not want to take a chance on losing that particular source of revenue. Lena did not want to appear in those kinds of stereotyped roles and who could blame her?"

You bitches are just dishing and yapping away in here, ain’t ya.

[quote]R183 Ava Gardner singing "Can't Help Loving That Man Of Mine" in her own voice. Not that bad, but she was still dubbed in movie by Annette Warren

I believe it was Gardner’s husband Artie Shaw who gave her confidence in her singing. I don’t know if he had her take lessons, but he did coach her, and believed she could be the ultimate big band singer if they toured together.

She didn’t have any interest in doing that, but it did make her realize that her singing voice was, for all practical purposes, more than sufficient.

From above YT Show Boat clip:

"From "Ava: My Story"

"Now, I can sing. I do not expect to be taken for Maria Callas, Ella Fitzgerald, or Lena Home, but I can carry a tune well enough for the likes of Artie Shaw to feel safe offering to put me in front of his orchestra. But since Julie's two songs, "Bill" and "Can't Help Loving That Man," are so beloved by everyone, I decided to work as hard as I could to fit the bill. I even found this marvelous teacher, who'd worked with both Lena and Dorothy Dandridge, and we slaved away for several weeks and produced a test record of those two songs.

Then, rather nervously, I took my life into my hands and gave the record to Arthur Freed himself, God Almighty of musical productions. I don't think the son of a bitch ever even listened to it He just put it on a shelf and delivered the usual studio ultimatum: "Now, listen, Ava, you can't sing and you're among professional singers." So that settled that one.

Or did it? Because the singer they'd chosen to dub my singing had a high, rather tiny voice, totally inappropriate when it was paired with my own speaking voice. The studio spent thousands and thousands of dollars and used the full MGM orchestra trying to get this poor girl right. I mean, there was nothing wrong with her in the first place, except for the obvious fact that she wasn't me.

Finally, they got Annette Warren, this gal who used to do a lot of my singing off-screen, and they substituted her voice for mine. So my Southern twang suddenly stops talking and her soprano starts singing - hell, what a mess.

When it came to the album version of the movie, things got even worse. Being a great fan of Lena's, I had copied her phrasing, note for note, on my test record. So they took my record imitating Lena and put earphones on her so she could sing the songs copying me copying her.

But Metro soon found out that they couldn't legally release the album with my name and image, as they called it, without my voice being part of the package. So then I used earphones to try to record my voice over her voice, which had been recorded over my voice imitating her. I did it note for note, they wiped Lena's voice off the album, and the record was a success. That's the way they worked in those days. And I still get goddamn royalties on the thing!"

From Hugh Fordin's book "The World Of Entertainment!":

Ava had made up her mind to sing her two numbers herself: no dubbing. Roger Edens decided to audition voice doubles: Marni Nixon, Anita Ellis, Carole Richards and Annette Warren. He found Warren's singing voice best suited as a match for Gardner's speaking voice.

When it came to the prerecordings Gardner still insisted on singing the songs herself. As a precaution a set of tracks was also made by Warren. After a couple of weeks of screening the two scenes for a number of in- and outsiders, Annette Warren was called back to rerecord the songs, now to Gardner's lip-synch. What ensued until after the production had closed was a kind of a parlor game. Warren's tracks were in; Warren's tracks were out. Gardner's tracks were in, and then they were out; and so on and so forth, depending on the comment of whoever had seen the sequences last.

When Simone asked and Jesse Kaye discussed the forthcoming soundtrack album he felt that for reasons of exploitation and sale Ava Gardner's name on the cover would be an added plus. Show Boat cost $2,295,429 and grossed in excess of $8,650,000. ."

/quote

R186

You may continue participating in this conversation only if you have something illuminating to say.

Juanita Moore's performance was SO great that she single-handedly manages to elevate the entire movie way above the level of over-the-top campy, sentimental drivel that most of it represents. Or another way to phrase it is that, whenever Moore is on screen, the movie intermittently becomes a far better one.

[quote]I don't think it was necessarily a case of the studio not wanting to cast Lena. The censors then wouldn't have allowed it if a marital or sexual or even romantic relationship was portrayed.

Come on, people! A major plot point of SHOW BOAT is that everyone on the Cotton Blossom is completely shocked when they learn that Julie is of mixed race, as she had been able to successfully pass as 100 percent white up to that point. Even if you think Lena Horne was light-skinned enough to pass as white as far as that goes, what about her accent, her vocal inflections, her whole style of speaking and singing? Would she really have changed all of those to be believable as someone convincingly passing as white? I doubt it -- and anyway, I don't think anyone would have wanted her to change her whole style of speaking and singing, because then it would have seemed like someone other than Lena Horne playing the role.

It's great to have Lena singing Julie's songs in that extended SHOW BOAT sequence in TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY, but of course, none of the above was an issue in that movie, because it gave us only the songs, with no dialogue and no plot point about Julie passing as white.

Annette Warren is still with us, and continues to perform. Well she did recently as 2016 anyway.

Ms. Warren also dubbed Lucille Ball among others. Pity no one thought of using her for that Mame film that Ms. Ball croaked her way though.

Ms. Warren dubbing Lucille Ball's voice in "Sorrowful Jones"

Acquanetta was another minor star in the Hollywood firmament who "passed for white" in the 1940s. She didn't have much of a career, but she was absolutely gorgeous.

The Wikipedia article on her is excellent.

R189 Bitch, I’m the op! Plus, I love reading all of your posts. I’ve learned so much.

If I’m going to try to pass for white I’d choose a less exotic name! R195

Acquanetta passed for Native-American, then Latina, then vaguely "ethnic, but not African-American."

She got away with a lot of self-creation in the days before the Internet.

Ava loved telling people that her father was afraid that the family had been "touched" by the tar brush - a perjorative term relating to any white person rumored to have black ancestors. A lot of whites mixed with blacks who were indentured servants before slavery became institutionalized, and past that. But before the boom was lowered, many married and raised families. And it was really prevalent in Latin America. Had Lena been born in Latin America, she would have been considered white, no questions asked.

R198 fascinating. I’m going to read more about her, I’m intrigued

Ava has been called a Melungeon, which are a group of Southern people who are mostly socially accepted as white, but who have darker skin than most white people, and who have long-ago mixed ancestry.

Elvis Presley was also rumored to be a Melungeon, but I don't see any mix in him. Ava looked so exotic that one could believe all sorts of interesting things about her ancestors, but Elvis had European features, fair hair, and blue eyes. He was as white as Nicole Kidman.

Well, Heather Locklear is a Lumbee and she has blonde hair and blue eyes. What's her story, then?

I'm surprised that more of you are not talking about the fashions in the film;

[quote]Imitation of Life (1959) was a remake of the 1934 film of the same name starring Claudette Colbert. In this version, starring Lana Turner as Lora Meredith, it gets a glamorous update. The film, while still true to the original story, and certainly worth watching for that (make sure you have lots of Kleenex), it is also a fashion showcase where Lana gets to model 34 ensembles, designed by Jean Louis. Her jewels in the film were worth $1 million with the gowns costing an estimated $78,000, or around $2,218 each.

Lana Turner wore this great jumper / pantsuit in the 1959 Universal melodrama "Imitation of Life" based on Fannie Hurst's famous novel. It co-starred Sandra Dee, Juanita Moore, John Gavin, and Susan Kohner.

The movie was produced by Ross Hunter and directed by Douglas Sirk, and it has that glossy late 50's / early 60's look that Universal had at that time. Filmed in Technicolor, the sets, music, and costumes all reflect the era in an ultra-glamorous kind of way. Lana's "Portrait in Black" and "Madame X" have the same type of atmosphere, as well as other movies made at Universal and produced by Hunter such as "Pillow Talk" and "Back Street," and those directed by Sirk such as "Magnificent Obsession" and "Written on the Wind."

The costumes for "Imitation" were designed by the great Jean Louis. He was prolific in the 50's, designing cutting edge, high fashion style pieces for stars like Rita Hayworth, Judy Holliday, and Marilyn Monroe, all of whom he's identified with. He created Hayworth's famous "Gilda" gown, and the "Happy Birthday Mr. President" gown that Marilyn wore when she sang it to JFK. He also created Judy Garland's extensive wardrobe for "A Star is Born." He designed for many great Hollywood beauties and was married to one of the greatest, Loretta Young, for whom he designed for many years, most notably for her TV show.

Jean Louis also designed Lana's costumes for the previously mentioned "Portrait in Black" and "Madame X," and for all three movies his styles made her look elegant but alluring and even sexy at the same time. He had a knack for capturing a style that the character in the movie needed but that also flattered the actress playing the character, so that they always looked like a star. He gave actresses like Rita Hayworth and Judy Holliday a signature look which still makes them stand out today.

The jumper is unique and has a real classic Hollywood look to it. It's worn by Lana in a scene that takes place in the afternoon, when she comes down the stairs from her room to the bar in her house to talk with her daughter, played by Sandra Dee, and her boyfriend, played by John Gavin. She's become a big star at this point in the movie and always looks the part, so it's stylish yet casual at the same time since she's wearing it during the afternoon.

It's made of a tangerine orange raw silk with a satin line down each pant leg and matching bow at the end. Note the interesting cut of the neckline and shoulder area. It also has buttons down the back which, along with the cut of the piece itself, give it an elegant look.The matching belt is also made of the same color silk. It's a miracle that the belt has stayed with the costume all these years, because belts were typically used for other things and didn't necessarily stay with the original costume. The only extra piece she has on with it is a matching silk scarf that is looped behind the belt.

R204- You are SO GAY.

R199- Especially in a country like Brazil.

As I recall R204, Sandra Dee's character says something passively aggressive bitchy to Steve about her mother Lora wearing such an outfit.

Watched John Gavin in Michael Curtiz's A BREATH OF SCANDAL (60) on Amazon Prime last evening. It's like he's not even a mere mortal human. He can't do line readings for shit, but he was so godamn pretty even Sophia Loren looks like she's orgasming in his presence.

R208, the only good performance I've seen from Gavin was in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, of all things. He seems to have had a really good sense of comedy in spoofing a square-jawed, golden-boy, arrow-collar guy of the 1920s.

[quote]R203 I'm surprised that more of you are not talking about the fashions in the film;

HERE, if you must:

Why, without love you're only living an imitation of life.

Funny that while Lana was marketed as a sex symbol, she didn't have the greatest body. Her best feature was her tits.

What was wrong with the rest of her body?

Short neck, slightly barrel chested, no hips at all, and her booty was lacking a bit. YMMV, as they used to say.

P.S. - Lana was aware of her shortcomings as well and dressed accordingly

YMMV?

Her bullet bras could have been used as radar honing devices---your attention always went to her tits and you knew they would lead to trouble.

Maybe they could CGI Kim Kardashian's ass onto Lana's- to pander to modern tastes?

But, isn't that why there are fashion/costume designers, R214? Their work is very important and just many times overlooked and/or taken for granted.

[quote]YMMV?

R216 Your Mileage May Vary = you agree with me or disagree. I was told by my nephew that no one uses that phrase anymore....

"Funny that while Lana was marketed as a sex symbol, she didn't have the greatest body. "

She came up in the late 1930s and 1940s, when the fashionable woman was small and slight, possessed of tits but without a lot of curves. Betty Grable (below) was considered to have the ideal figure in the early 1940s, when Lana was making her splash, so Lana was close enough to the ideal to get a lot of publicity for her shape. Of course in the 1950s fuller and more voluptuous bodies became the fashion, but all Lana could do was put on a couple of pounds, which went around the middle, and not into the tits or ass.

Does anyone know (or have an idea) of why such a BIG budget was green-lit for this particular picture?

I don't think the budget was really all that huge. Producer Ross Hunter was famous for making things look generally lux, but that doesn't mean he paid a ton for everything. For instance, Lana Turner was given profit participation in the film's ticket sales rather than a big salary upfront. Then you get a jewelry company that will loan a lot of gems in exchange for an onscreen credit, so they recieve publicity that will attract customers. The studio already owned the literary property, so there was no cost for that. Etc. etc.

[quote]r212 Funny that while Lana was marketed as a sex symbol, she didn't have the greatest body. Her best feature was her tits.

Lana Turner's body was nicely proportioned.

Didn't John Gavin's WOODEN self appear in PYSCHO 1960?

JG's appearance as Manly Sam in PSYCHO may have been wooden--but nobody noticed since Hitch filmed him shirtless just after he had a nooner in a hotel with Janet Leigh (who sports a pointy bra). It was very daring for 1960.

Trailer 1

Trailer 2

Don O hurlahy- spelling his name wrong. I found him MORE attractive than John Gavin.

R223 : In those days, Universal was a low budget studio. Unlike Columbia, they were a studio w/o theaters that did not prosper when other studios lost theirs. Lew Wasserman (MCA--talent agency, mostly middling tv shows) basically kept them going by the time of "Imitation of Life".

You'll note in the photo of Lana in r224 in The Postman Always Rings Twice how the clever MGM costume designer Irene Lentz lengthened Lana short neck with a super long V-shaped neckline and broadened her flat hips and booty with those flared short-shorts.

I agree, Lana was short, especially by today's standards.

Her "official" height is 5'3" - and maybe when she was 18 years old, but more likely she was 5'2' or 5'1', especially as she aged.

She had big boobs, but she had a thick waist especially as she got older.

"Pigeon-breasted" is one description of this body type.

I once saw an exhibit of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and Diana's gowns at Kensington Palace.

The Queen and the Queen Mother have this same body type - short, big-breasted, thick-waisted as they age.

Diana was surprisingly tall and thin based on her gowns.

5'3" wasn't so short for a woman in the 1940s, especially with platform heels which could easily add another 5" and would have been de rigueur with any elegant outfit. She would have towered over 4'11" Judy Garland.

And the fascinating Joan Greenwood was a dwarf-like 5' 0½".

R232: it's instructive to see how Orr-Kelly successfully dealt with the challenges of Bette Davis's large breasts and short torso (then pretty skinny) in her time at Warners. He was a master of techniques that ended up as High Style.

[quote] successfully dealt with the challenges of Bette Davis's large breasts and short torso

😂

[quote]Get real. Annie was a freaking maid! So why was her funeral something of JFK proportions?

Honey, Black folk don't play when it's time to go home to see Jesus!

Below, Miss Jessye Norman going home to be with our Lord;

Miss Mahalia's (Jackson) goin' home service.

Miss Aretha was properly dressed in her black and with her head covered.

Miss Aretha was so excited to go home that she didn't know what to wear! She had 3 outfit changes.

LOOK at those pumps, honey!!!

R239 Oh hell no. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

And the crossing of the feet is perfect!

Not horse-drawn, but still impressive as hell at the age of 80: the 1940 Cadillac LaSalle hearse that carried both Aretha and Rosa Parks on their final ride

You just need to know the tricks of the trade.

One of Mae's *tricks*...

^^^No wonder she hardly ever moved in her films R243, R244!

That's why she wasn't as effective if it wasn't a period piece with long skirts, r245.

And whalebone corsets, R246.

Mae needed the 19th century settings so the heavy clothes could be used to alter her dumpy figure, and so her character would be surrounded by people who would actually be shocked by her mild double entendres.

I watched this for the millionth time on Peacock last night with my man, and I laughed all the way through at Lora's "Me! Me! Me!"–ness. Like clockwork, though, we both started sniffling when Miss Mahalia Jackson began to sing.

❤️

Awwww, R249.

😭

Two words. Mahalia. Jackson. That is all.

I'm sure Mahalia was a nice person but the name sounds like a medical condition or some kind of breathing disorder.

Mahalia was offered several lucrative offers to sing "worldly" music, wasn't she? But she turned them down.

[quote] Mahalia Jackson

But, was Miss Jackson a homosexual?

I'd love to hear the Mahalia Goes Disco album!

R252 If you suffer from Mahalia, Astrazeneca may be able to help.

I played Pictionary with Sandra Bullock at her Austin house

Mae West's persona didn't really work as well in a contemporary setting. She was so much larger than ordinary life.

I guess it didn't cost much;

Budget $1.2 million

Box office $6.4 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)

Sirk's Imitation of Life premiered in Chicago on March 17, 1959, followed by Los Angeles on March 20 and New York City on April 17. Following its New York opening, it became number one in the US for two weeks before Universal put the film into general release on April 30. Though it was not well-reviewed upon its original release and was viewed as inferior to the original 1934 film version – many critics derided the film as a "soap opera,"– Imitation of Life was the sixth highest-grossing film of 1959, grossing $6.4 million, and was Universal-International's top-grossing film that year. Hiro wrote that in contrast to the novel, this film and the previous film received "far more critical attention", with the second film being "more famous" compared to the first.

Both Moore and Kohner were nominated for the 1959 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the 1959 Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress. While neither actress won the Oscar, Kohner won the Golden Globe for her performance. Moore won second place in the category of Top Female Supporting Performance at the 1959 Laurel Awards, and the film won Top Drama. Douglas Sirk was nominated for the 1959 Directors Guild of America Award.

Since the late 20th century, Imitation of Life has been re-evaluated by critics. It has been considered a masterpiece of Sirk's American career. Emanuel Levy has written, "One of the four masterpieces directed in the 1950s, the visually lush, meticulously designed and powerfully acted Imitation of Life was the jewel in Sirk's crown, ending his Hollywood's career before he returned to his native Germany." Sirk provided the Annie–Sarah Jane relationship in his version with more screen time and more intensity than the original versions of the story. Critics later commented that Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner stole the film from Turner. Sirk later said that he had deliberately and subversively undercut Turner to draw focus toward the problems of the two black characters.

Sirk's treatment of racial and class issues is also admired for what he caught of the times. Writing in 1997, Rob Nelson said,

Basically, we're left to intuit that the black characters (and the movie) are themselves products of '50s-era racism – which explains the film's perspective, but hardly makes it less dizzying. Possibly thinking of W.E.B. Du Bois's notion of black American double-consciousness, critic Molly Haskell once described Imitation's double-vision: "The mixed-race girl's agonizing quest for her identity is not seen from her point of view as much as it is mockingly reflected in the fun house mirrors of the culture from which she is hopelessly alienated."

Imitation of Life became a staple of both the American Movie Classics and Turner Classic Movies cable television networks. Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven (2002) is an homage to Sirk's work, in particular All That Heaven Allows (1955) and Imitation of Life. The 1969 Diana Ross & the Supremes song "I'm Livin' in Shame" and the 2001 R.E.M. song, "Imitation of Life," are based upon this film.

In 2015, BBC Online, the website of the British Broadcasting Corporation, named the film the 37th greatest American movie ever made based on a survey of film critics.

R259 Thanks for all those tidbits!

If there is a God, Mahalia Jackson's voice may be the only proof we need.

It's so often considered the ultimate tear jerker, I think, because how many of us out there have things we want to apologize to our mothers for and...it's too late?

What I thought was interesting about R259 is how the "elite and snobby" critics got it wrong.

"It has been re-evaluated by the critics?"

LOL!!!!

[quote] It's so often considered the ultimate tear jerker, I think, because how many of us out there have things we want to apologize to our mothers for and...it's too late?

🥺 ::gives you a big kiss and hug::

[quote]It's so often considered the ultimate tear jerker

I wasn't jerking tears after seeing John Gavin.

[quote]R263 What I thought was interesting about [R259] is how the "elite and snobby" critics got it wrong. "It has been re-evaluated by the critics?" LOL!!!!

Agreed. This film is gussied up soap opera trash dragged further down by bad acting by half the cast.

No one seriously respects this movie!

I disagree, R266. Regardless of what you, and the elitist critics thought/think of the film, you cannot deny that it made a substantial amount of money--given the investment, and is considered a classic and very good movie by many. What is more important?

I'm reminded of the film, "Mommie Dearest" which was trashed by the critics and many of the public at the time of its release. However, that film has developed into a cult classic (likely because of its campiness) that even Faye Dunaway has to acknowledge the film of which she previously refused to do.

The public likes what it likes!

Imitation of Life regardless has had such an influence on many filmmakers from Fassbinder to Todd Haynes. I think many people respect this film.

[quote] filmmakers from Fassbinder to Todd Haynes.

I'm a cinema-snob and have as little respect for these two shysters as I do for the vapid Ross Hunter.

I'm [italic]white[/italic], WHITE! WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITE!

I'm luxuriating in reading this thread, drinking my Sunday morning coffee.

I noticed this thread soon after the OP posted on 12/20, but didn't open it right away. I've become an expert from long experience here, on identifying those "I'll save that for when I I can give it my undivided attention" thread topics.

Like many here I saw "Imitation of Life" as kid in the late 60s or early 70s when the local TV station showed it as an afternoon movie.

Even in my little kid eyes, I could see that Turner was no actor, but I knew even better she was a star. And yes, I bawled my eyes out.

Love. This. Thread.

And, oh, r204, yes, love that jumpsuit which obviously influenced the costume designer for the original TV Star Trek costume designer and I write that as a compliment.

Of course, there is a very practical reason jumpsuits have sporadic, brief, moments of being "In" and then fade like a meteor shower, and, that is, having to use the toilet.

And the one Jean Louis designed for Turner has the buttons in the back!

Oops, that should be: ...love that jumpsuit which obviously influenced the costume designer for the original TV Star Trek and I write that as a compliment.

[quote]r267 Regardless of what you, and the elitist critics thought/think of the film, you cannot deny that it made a substantial amount of money

No one said trash can’t make money. Half the movies ever made are trash.

[quote]I disagree, [R266]. Regardless of what you, and the elitist critics thought/think of the film, you cannot deny that it made a substantial amount of money--given the investment, and is considered a classic and very good movie by many. What is more important?

As I've said before, Juanita Moore's performance almost single-handedly elevates the movie and make it a classic whenever she is on screen, but only then. Pretty much the entire remainder of the movie is campy trash due to the direction and the acting.

[quote]I'm reminded of the film, "Mommie Dearest" which was trashed by the critics and many of the public at the time of its release. However, that film has developed into a cult classic (likely because of its campiness) that even Faye Dunaway has to acknowledge the film of which she previously refused to do.

"Likely" because of its campiness? How about "definitely" because of it campiness? When a movie that's largely about a very serious subject (child abuse) was meant to treat that subject in earnest and winds up a hilarious camp classic, that's not an achievement, it's a huge embarrassment.

[quote]r267 The public likes what it likes!

What no one seems to have commented on in this very long thread is how quickly and effortlessly the middle aged and untrained Lora Meredith becomes a Broadway star, even if she looks like an aging Lana Turner.

At least Claudette Colbert had a sure-fire packaged pancake mix for a believable rise to fame and fortune. I really miss that angle in the remake.

[quote]No one said trash can’t make money. Half the movies ever made are trash.

This is why people like Adam Sandler and Paul Rudd are stars. Most of their films are shit, but they strike a chord with their demographic.

As much as I love this movie I have to say that Sandra Dee was the weakest link. I half expected her to say that Steve was the absolute ginchiest when she was talking about him with Annie.

Interesting, R278. I think the acting is pretty appalling all around, with the sole exception of Juanita Moore. Maybe part of the problem was the direction, and Moore somehow managed to transcend that.

[quote] part of the problem

The bigger problem was that this serious topic was being handled by that poodle-walker named Ross Hunter.

R279, the director never lived who could get a convincing performance out of Lana Turner or Sandra Dee!

Lana at least looked very glam, I suppose they wanted that more than acting.

Lana's best performance was on the witness stand during her daughter's murder trial.

R254 "Homosexual?" There's only one mammal in the universe who still uses that word on these boards. Guess!

Imitation of Life is perfect goddammit!

And Lora launched her successful stage career by simply telling the playwright to “give the limes to Amy...”. Bwahahahahaa!

Lines, not limes. Shit.

Those limes in your Margarita are making you a little unsteady R286. Have some saltines.

Another black actress who passed as white was Dona Drake (Eunice Westmoreland), the wife of famed movie costumer Bill Travilla. Her studio-manufactured biography claimed she was Mexican-American.

Sorry but today Sirk is considered a great filmmaker. If you think Imitation of life is trash you have shit for brains.

[quote] Sorry

No need to be sorry. Datalounge welcomes all kinds of debate.

[quote]Her studio-manufactured biography claimed she was Mexican-American.

She couldn't hold a candle to Magdalena Montezuma.

Why didn't Katy Jurado get this job?

[quote]Sorry but today Sirk is considered a great filmmaker. If you think Imitation of life is trash you have shit for brains.

Umm, while there are some people today who consider Sirk to have been a great filmmaker, there are others who.....do not. The person who actually has shit for brains is the one who insists there's one prevailing opinion on a very divisive director.

[quote] the one who insists

Why have Americans become SO doctrinaire?

What happened to the notion of friendly debates. Our nation is regressing.

[quote]Why have Americans become SO doctrinaire?

I don't know if this is necessarily an American trait, but insisting on seeing everything as either black OR white, with no shades of gray, is a sign of sheer stupidity, and it does seem that there are an awful lot of stupid people in our dumbed-down country.

Sirk had a genre and he was a master of it. You may not like the genre...

Claudette's version is so much better.

[quote] I don't know if this is necessarily an American trait…

Yes, R295 I suppose it's true of all people across the planet who spend excess time on twitter and chat groups

[quote] insisting on seeing everything as either black OR white, with no shades of gray, is a sign of sheer stupidity

I guess the internet entwines us with people who we may see on a street and would choose to avoid. There are some recent threads on DL which are nothing more than rabid gibberish.

[quote]Sirk had a genre and he was a master of it. You may not like the genre...

If you mean melodramas in which the characters' over-the-top behavior and dialogue doesn't remotely resemble anything that would ever happen in the real world among real human beings, then you're right, I don't like the genre. But there are melodramas and there are melodramas, and some of them are so over-the-top that I find them ridiculous, whereas others are not so extreme and are therefore far more enjoyable.

[quote] But there are melodramas and there are melodramas

I enjoy the lush colour photography and the beauty of John Gavin née Apablasa and Rock Hudson née Roy Scherer in these 1950s melodramas. But I have nil interest in operetta-style plots meant for women nor dullard performers like Lana Turner and Sandra Dee.

I wish we had scholars who could better demonstrate the link between the dubious Sirk and the luscious Almodovar.

Could Hollywood remake this picture today? I mean it seems as if they have remade "A Star Is Born" at least 20 times...

If Hollywood remade the film today would it go with the Lana version of a successful Broadway actress and her black dresser/maid or with the original Claudette version of a pancake mix CEO and her black baking wizardess?

I recall years ago that there was some kind of brouhaha concerning Audra McDonald and her daughter. Many people believed that her daughter could not be her own birthed child because she was so light. So R302, it might be possible to redo this story and remake the movie with some adjustments.

I believe that Victoria Rowell from [italic]The Young And The Restless[/italic] has a daughter who is so white in appearance that a flight attendant tried to take her from her arms or something to that effect. The flight attendant should have been slapped.

Did anybody else see Everett Quinton in MOVIELAND? He was absolutely brilliant. His Connie Bennett still makes me laugh when I think about it. From NYT:

*

In "Movieland," Everett Quinton's expert, very funny one-man show presented by the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, he appears as Ruby Stevens, which also happens to have been the real name of Barbara Stanwyck. Mr. Quinton's Ruby is somebody quite other, a self-described former "male actress on the illegitimate stage." She has the only mildly disguised build and voice of, well, a man. "Not being very beautiful," she confides girlishly at the start of the show, "I had to be" (significant pause) "good." The line brings down the house, and Mr. Quinton is off and running.

"Movieland," which was directed by Eureka, ends its run next Sunday at the Charles Ludlum Theater. It's a frequently hilarious take on Hollywood's so-called golden age, written and acted by Mr. Quinton with the kind of rare discipline and control that elevates drag to theatrical art. The frame of the show is this (with no apologies to Scheherazade or "Kiss of the Spider Woman"): the aging Ruby, pursued by a voracious dragon that could be death, keeps the monster on the other side of her door by acting out the plots of a bunch of old movies, most successfully "The Spiral Staircase," "The 10 Commandments" and the Lana Turner version of "Madame X."

Mr. Quinton is far more than a mimic. He does imitate some of the actors whose roles he plays, including both Yul Brynner and Anne Baxter in a priceless give-and-take scene from "The 10 Commandments." More important, he evokes the sense of the performances and the effect such performances had (and possibly still have) on the audiences that adored them. As he moves around the stage, picking up, using and discarding props with the speed of light, he has the low-comedy grace of Groucho Marx and the timing of Jack Benny. He also possesses a sense of the absurd that embraces both highly sophisticated contemporary camp and the innocent comedy of "Charley's Aunt." He's a wizard.

THAT'S who it was, R304. Thanks!

The person who says the movie is trash deserves to be called shit for brains. There are many highly respected films which I dislike a lot but I would never call them trash.

Take r299's post, r307. I mean they're called MELODRAMAS for a reason!

*

"If you mean melodramas in which the characters' over-the-top behavior and dialogue doesn't remotely resemble anything that would ever happen in the real world among real human beings, then you're right, I don't like the genre"

I guess he doesn't like opera or ballet either. Heightened behavior and dialogue are gripping when done well and as realistic as any genre. And boy I've seen some melodrama in real life. Try growing up in an Italian family.

And all the Lana bashing is silly. Like Joan, she wasn't an actress - she was a Movie Star.

Victoria Rowell and children

R311, that's her; she looks like a white girl; she basically is, since Victoria is biracial; her white mom put her up for adoption. The boy is her son with Wynton Marsalis; he's a cute kid.

Juanita Moore has a bit part in a 1954 movie on TCM right now, "Witness to Murder," with Barbara Stanwyck.

Juanita is credited as "Negress - Mental Patient."

I used to watch it with my grandmother a lot. A wonderful melodrama and I think a little bit of the inspiration for "Far from Heaven".

Far from Heaven is pretty explicitly based on Sirk's All That Heaven Allows.

Since this topic briefly segued into other melodrama movies, I see "Midnight Lace" is available on free movies if you have a Spectrum Charter subscription.

[quote]Juanita is credited as "Negress - Mental Patient."

R313 that was awful, wasn't it? I remember seeing that.

[quote] that was awful, wasn't it?

Yes, they should have used a stroke, solidus or a virgule '/' rather than a hyphen.

I’ve read this whole thread, so I apologize if this has been reported already and I missed it.

They have made a movie of the novel PASSING, starring the sublime Ruth Negga.

On TCM right now, peoples!

I've seen the Lana Turner version a few times, I don't understand this film or it's endurance as a fan favorites.

I saw this in a sold out movie theatre a few years ago populated by fags and the women who love them. Of course part of the film is pure camp so there was lots of laughter. But during the Annie and Sarah Jane scenes the theatre was silent and there were lots of tears at the end. Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner made this movie something very special.

The funeral scene, R321

[quote]Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner made this movie something very special.

And they're the reason it's being shown as part of TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" today. (They both got Best Supporting nods.)

[quote]For saving me the trouble [R134], I thank you bunches. This flick is a hoot.

I love the inappropriately jazzy and upbeat musical score in the opening credits. It makes you think you're about to watch a Doris Day–Rock Hudson sex comedy.

[quote]I don't understand this film or it's endurance as a fan favorites.

You also don't understand when to use an apostrophe either.