Imitation of Life (1959)

A struggling young actress with a six-year-old daughter sets up housekeeping with a homeless black widow and her light-skinned eight-year-old daughter who rejects her mother by trying to pass for white.

Director:

Douglas Sirk

Writers:

Eleanore Griffin (screenplay), Allan Scott (screenplay),

Stars:

Lana Turner, John Gavin, Sandra Dee

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lana Turner	...	Lora Meredith
John Gavin	...	Steve Archer
Sandra Dee	...	Susie - 16
Susan Kohner	...	Sarah Jane - 18
Robert Alda	...	Allen Loomis
Dan O'Herlihy	...	David Edwards
Juanita Moore	...	Annie Johnson
Karin Dicker	...	Sarah Jane - 8
Terry Burnham	...	Susie - 6
John Vivyan	...	Young Man
Lee Goodman	...	Photographer
Ann Robinson	...	Showgirl
Troy Donahue	...	Frankie
Sandra Gould	...	Annette
David Tomack	...	Mr. McKenney

Storyline

Aspiring actress Lora Meredith meets Annie Johnson a homeless black woman at Coney Island and soon they share a tiny apartment. Each woman has an intolerable daughter, though Annie's little girl Sarah Jane, is by far the worse. Neurotic and obnoxious, Sarah Jane doesn't like being black; since she's light-skinned (her father was practically white), she spends the rest of the film passing as white, much to her mother's heartache and shame. Lora, meanwhile, virtually ignores her own daughter in a single-minded quest for stardom.

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Plot Keywords:

actress | widow | friend | love | girl | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 April 1959 (USA)

Also Known As:

Imitação da Vida

Filming Locations:

Aquarius Theater - 6230 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

Mono Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Douglas Sirk's last Hollywood film before he retired back to his native Germany.

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Goofs

During Broadway montage sequence set in 1951, theater sign advertising Ricardo Montalban in the musical Jamaica can be seen. It didn't open until 1957.

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Quotes

Lora: You're aiming high.
Steve: Why not? It doesn't cost anymore. Don't you believe in chasing rainbows?

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Crazy Credits

Juanita Moore, who plays Annie, is billed with the credit "And Presenting Juanita Moore as Annie Johnson", even though she had already appeared in many films.

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Connections

References Gone with the Wind (1939)

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Soundtracks

"Imitation of Life"
Words by Paul Francis Webster
Music by Sammy Fain
Sung by Earl Grant

User Reviews

canned goods as caviar: Sirks last masterpiece.

For a long time Douglas Sirk was dismissed by all but he most insightful critics. It was thought that he made a series of well crafted, well acted, but ultimately empty"weepies"(as well as "americana" films, a swashbuckler( Captain Lightfoot), a revisionist western( Taza Son of Cochise),and a sandals and toga epic(Sign of the Pagan.)

However, the "weepies" have been reevaluated( and the Americana films may be reevaluated as well).Sirk is now seen as one of the most significant American directors of the fifties, and, perhaps, as one of the hundred greatest directors of all time. Imitation of Life was his last Hollywood pictures, and one of his best. I call this film, "Canned goods as caviar", because it is an example of taking a "low brow" genre and transforming it into art. Sure, the music is melodramatic, sure the performances by Gavin and Turner are somewhat contrived), sure, the story is campy, but Sirk in his genius transforms melodrama into a scathing critique of materialism, conformity, and racism. Sirk was no cynic, but a rigorous moralist-a superbly educated and sensitive man, steeped in European and American literature.

One of the most astonishing-and misunderstood- elements in this picture is the incandescent performance by Juanita Moore. Moore achieves what is almost impossible; she portrays human goodness. Ican rarely think of a time when an American film has more saintly, more purely Christian figure.