Imitation of Life

Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life (1959) is a huge improvement over the 1934 version. Character motivations and whole back stories have been expunged entirely, such as Delilah Johnson's degrading career as a pancake cook. She is now Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), a woman who has emotionally bonded with the career-minded Lora Meredith (Lana Turner), looking after Meredith's young daughter and her own daughter, Sarah Jane, who can pass as white at first glance. The scenario, as it did in the original, provides plenty of melodrama, which Sirk utilizes masterfully, but also creates a more fascinating discussion of Meredith's inadequacies as a parent who finally overcomes her self-interest.

Emotions are more developed, Lana Turner's character is revealed to be the insensitive mother that Claudette Colbert's character only hinted at, and most importantly, the central drama of the Johnson family is actually developed out with maturity and sensitivity to the plight of African-Americans. Sarah Jane's character actually has an arc, and the ending covers a span of emotional maturity, rather than a stunted commentary on the nature of passing. Indeed, while the film logically covers more of Meredith's story (given the time period, social expectations and all), it is the commentary on Sarah Jane and her mother that are given the strongest once-over.

When Sarah Jane leaves the household and starts to pass in bars and dance clubs, there is a sensitivity and depth to her contradicting feelings about her heritage and her mother that is entirely absent from the original. Moreover, these scenes demonstrate with genuine sadness the way in which she was forced to utilize her light-skinned beauty, so that her survival is dependent upon her marketing of herself as a sex object. Mostly, though, it is the ending that is redeemed in this version, allowing Sarah Jane a reconciliation and working through her past experiences that gives the character a proper depth and range of emotion.

At the end of the day, stories about racial passing and survival received little attention from classic Hollywood, so any film that tackles these issues sets itself up for critical acclaim. Only Sirk's version of Imitation of Life delivers on the depth, transcending blanket caricatures. So much better of a film.

Imitation of Life: 8/10