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.
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.
Written by alfiehitchie
Douglas Sirk's last Hollywood film before he retired back to his native Germany.
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Goofs
Boom mic visible:
In the top right corner as David Edwards arrives in Lora's living room after she becomes famous.
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Quotes
Lora Meredith:
Now, just a moment, young lady! It's only because of my ambition that you've had the best of everything. And that's a solid achievement that any mother can be proud of! Susie, age 16:
[tearfully]
And how about a mother's love? Lora Meredith:
LOVE? But you've always had that! Susie, age 16:
Yes, by telephone, by postcard, by magazine interviews... you've given me everything... but yourself! See more »
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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