Imitation of Life (1934/1959)
by Douglas Sirk, John M. Stahl
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Claudette Colbert, John Gavin, Lana Turner, Rochelle Hudson, Warren WilliamDirector: Douglas Sirk, John M. Stahl
Brand: Universal Studios
Writer: Allan Scott
Writer: Arthur Richman
Writer: Bianca Gilchrist
Writer: Eleanore Griffin
Writer: Fannie Hurst
Writer: Finley Peter Dunne
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 236 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-02-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Imitation of Life (1934/1959)
Movie Review: What About A Mother's Love?!
Summary: 5 Stars
At one point in the 1959 film, the tortured biracial Sarah Jane examines herself in a mirror and shrieks, "I'm white! White! WHITE!" Even as we sympathize for her plight and weep for her treatment of her mother Annie, we witness a scene which practically announces its "fake" quality! A white actress pretending to be a black woman pretending to be a white woman is photographed screaming her racial identity in front of a mirror, itself a false image in the middle of another false image - the actual film itself. Where is the "reality" behind so many images? IMITATION OF LIFE may seem like a silly, over-the-top campfest to the uninitiated or unthinking, but this film is one of the most important in Hollywood history, its very artificiality allowing an emotional honesty rare, or even non-existent, in popular entertainment.
This DVD definitely gives you more for your money, with 2 classic movies for the price of one! Douglas Sirk's 1959 treatment is far better known than the 1934 film, and it deserves to be! Both films are based on a best-selling novel by white author Fannie Hurst. The 1934 film sticks close to the source novel, while the 1959 version makes many changes, the vast majority of which improve tremendously on the earlier work. In both tales, the focus is on four women - two white, two black - whose lives become intertwined as a result of a chance meeting. In the earlier film, hardworking widow Claudette Colbert becomes the "Pancake Queen" of New York business by mass-producing and selling the recipie and image of her loyal friend/maid, Louise Beavers. Their lives would be idyllic were it not for the problems suffered by Beavers' daughter, Peola. Peola bears no resemblance at all to her mother, for her mother is a dark-skinned "Mammy" while Peola is clearly of European descent in every way. Peola hates the second-class position she is consigned to as a result of her part-African ancestry, and she takes it out on her mother, severing all contact with the woman and breaking Beavers' heart. A subplot extends the theme of mother-daughter conflict to the white world, when Colbert's teenage daughter falls in love with her mother's boyfriend. Eventually, Beavers dies, and her estranged daughter shows up at her mother's enormous Harlem funeral, screaming in anguish.
Douglas Sirk's version follows the same plot, but pumps up the production with gowns, jewels, wigs and lavish settings. Instead of an ambitious Pancake Queen, Sirk's main protagonist is the amazing Lana Turner, who plays a rather long-in-the-tooth (but ambitious) actress who becomes a big Broadway star and neglects her own daughter, Susie (played brilliantly by Sandra Dee) along the way. Helping Lana's rise to stardom is her maid and best friend, Annie Johnson (the Oscar-nominated Juanita Moore). Annie is a deeply religious, self-sacrificing black woman whose cross to bear is her own daughter, Sarah Jane (incarnated by Susan Kohner in another Oscar-nominated performance). Sarah Jane, whose missing father was "almost white," despises her mother's color and longs to "pass" into the white world as an actress, yet her mother blocks Sarah Jane's attempts to hide her true identity at every turn, saying, "It's wrong to be ashamed of what you are, and it's a sin to pretend! The Lord must have had his reasons for making some of us white and some of us black." The trick, of course, is that Sarah Jane is NOT "black," something her mother resolutely refuses to recognize. Sarah Jane's very existence is something between (or beyond) "black" and "white" and it is in the best interests of both sides that she remain consigned to the black side of the ledger, otherwise everyone might have to admit that race is a far more complex matter than it seems. Susan Kohner, in fact, was not of African descent, being the daughter of a German cameraman and the Mexican film star Lupita Tovar. Kohner's looks are quite ambiguous, giving her an "ethnic" appearance quite different from the WASP-blondeness of Turner, Dee and Sarah Jane's nasty boyfriend Troy Donahue (who beats her mercilessly when he learns the truth about her), yet she is nevertheless clearly Caucasian. Sirk remarked once that he would have directed IMITATION OF LIFE "for the title alone" and it is indeed the substructure of Sirk's film that makes the most telling points. The entire melodrama is played with absolute conviction and and a fast pace by all involved. Even though there are few scenes in the first half of the film (the "Lana" half) that do not reek of cliche from start to finish, Sirk's direction is so convincing that each "Old Hollywood" bit of thespian nonsense comes across as fresh and exciting! The film really hits its stride AFTER Lana becomes a huge superstar. The dramatic center shifts from uber-white Lana and Sandra - whose problems become progressively more stylized and unreal - to Annie and Sarah Jane. What starts out as a movie about Lana Turner winds up being a film about Lana Turner's black maid, and this switch leads to one of the most emotionally draining sequences in history. Annie's death scene is genuinely moving, and be prepared to let the tears flow when Sarah Jane makes a surprise visit to her mother's lavish funeral, publicly claiming the identity she previously rejected. The whole thing is deliberately excessive - an emotional wallow which nevertheless has some very sharp things to say about the hollow nature of American "success" and our fraught system of race relations. I won't even get into how the complex production design and amazing lighting make this a feast for the eyes as well as the mind. Trust me, this film will linger in your head long after you see it. It is Douglas Sirk's masterpiece and it was at the time the biggest blockbuster in the history of Universal Studios, as well as one of the first big-budget films which was actually shown to black audiences on first-run screens. They don't make 'em like this anymore, so be prepared for a very emotional experience that will change your view of society!
Plus, Lana's real jewels and Jean Louis gowns are a sight to behold! Look for her pink-and-red "hostess" outfit - you have never and will never see anybody on Earth wearing something like this outside of Hollywood...
Summary of Imitation of Life (1934/1959)
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