Imitation of Life

This glamorized remake of the 1934 film Imitation of Life bears only a passing resemblance to its source, the best-selling novel by Fannie Hurst. Originally, the heroine was a widowed mother who kept the wolf from the door by setting up a successful pancake business with her black housemaid. In the ...more

From the opening credits' cascade of jewels to the final orgy of grief and reconciliation, Douglas Sirk's remake of Imitation of Life encases a potentially maudlin soaper in a flamboyant style that incisively critiques 1950s America even as it mercilessly wrings emotions. Finding the perfect exemplars of artificiality in Lana Turner and cloying daughter Sandra Dee to contrast with the genuine, Oscar-nominated pathos of Juanita Moore and troubled daughter Susan Kohner, Sirk adds an extra bite to ...more