Nov. 23 movie: Imitation of Life. It's "Tearjerker Night" on TCM. I really needed a good dose of sentimental melodrama too. A good cry helps clear the sinuses. The Lana Turner remake of Imitation of Life is one of my favorite movies, so it was great to see the 1934 original with Claudette Colbert. It's basically the same story: two women, one black and one white, become friends and raise their daughters together. The white woman's daughter falls in love with her mother's fiance, and the black woman's daughter causes her mother heartache by abandoning her mother and passing for white. Lana Turner played an aspiring actress in the remake, but in this version the two women are partners in a hugely successful pancake business called "Aunt Delilah's Pancakes." (Hmm ... that sounds so familiar.)
According to Robert Osborne, this movie was criticized both by conservative audiences who objected to a white woman going into business with a black woman, and by black audiences because Louise Beavers (the black woman) doesn't establish her own home after they start making money, but prefers to remain in Colbert's house as a domestic. It did make me cringe to think that Beavers debasing herself, talking in "yas'm" dialect and begging to stay on as Colbert's cook, was progressive in 1934. But then again, I guess things hadn't improved much in 1959 when they made almost the exact same movie -- worse in some ways, since Annie (the black woman in the remake) isn't a business partner with her own share of the profits.
On the bright side, the movie also stars Alan Hale as the Furniture Man! Hale gives Colbert her big break by selling her all the furniture and fixtures for the first pancake restaurant, for no money down. Alan Hale makes any movie better.
I watched it too! I have never seen either version before , but had wanted to because the race issues are really interesting. I had always thought (don't know why) that the Delilah / Peola story was more central and was sad to see that it was just a backdrop to the Bea story. I did have fun thinking about the filming of Delilah's funeral scene with all of those black actors and extras.
As far as I can remember, the story about the black mother and daughter (Annie and Sarah Jane were their names) was more the focus in the remake. But I might just be remembering it that way because it had the most impact to me.
The funeral is exactly the same in the remake, with the big parade, marching musicians, the horse-drawn hearse, and the daughter flinging herself onto the coffin yelling "I killed my mother!" But the remake also has Mahalia Jackson singing in the church.
The remake is an amazing movie & I'd love to watch it with you sometime. If you don't mind that I cry like a baby at the end.
I forgot to mention that drag diva Lypsinka has a great tribute to the Lana Turner version of Imitation of Life:
http://www.lypsinka.com/favorite/imitation.html
Yes - let's watch the remake. I too am prone to crying. My favorite being sick activity is to watch West Side Story or Gone With the Wind and cry and cry and cry....
awesome! I added Imitation of Life to the head of my Netflix queue.