Imitación de la vida

I have seen this movie a countless number of times and know the dialogue by heart. Each time I watch it, I say, "I'm not going to cry this time". Sometimes I almost make it, but then Mahalia Jackson starts to sing and I lose it. My children don't understand why Sarah Jane wanted to pass for white. I tried to explain to them that in that day and age, it was sometimes necessary. The beautiful Susan Kohner steals the film. It's a shame that she only made a handful of movies. To me the most heart-wrenching scene is where Annie visits Sarah Jane in her hotel room. She says' "I want to hold you my arms one more time. Just like you were my baby." I puddle up just writing about it.

In Lana Turner's biography, she writes about the making of this movie. It was made shortly after her daughter stabbed Lana's gangster boyfriend to death. She said that when you see her crying in the funeral scene, those tears were real. When Mahalia started to sing "Troubles of the World", all of her troubles started to come back to her and she got up and ran out of the church. They had to run after her and bring her back to complete the scene.

I Agree with the poster before me, every time this comes on , I first decide if I will be able to see it without breaking down ( which I cant but I tell myself I can )Then try to concentrate on how beautiful Lana's outfits are ,,, but at the end when Annie dies,I just usually completely lose it ,,,

My real life nanny in the 60's was a Juanita Moore lookalike , coincidently also named "Annie". We watched this movie together and after she died in 1970 , watching this movie, really brings "my Annie's " death back .It is so real.

Lana's outfits are spectacular , the entire movie is outstanding.

During the Fifties and Sixties Lana Turner got to remake four Hollywood classics with the following films, The Merry Widow, The Rains Of Ranchipur, Imitation Of Life, and Madame X. I think only with Imitation Of Life did she get into something better than the original product. And the original Imitation Of Life with Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers was a classic indeed.

The film is updated with the action beginning at the end of World War II until the present which would be 1959 in the movie. Instead of the two women coming together to form a business partnership, they meet on the Coney Island beach when their daughters play with each other. For Lana it's a cheap day of fun because she's overdue on rent. Lana is a widow who came from the Midwest to make it as an actress on Broadway. But Juanita Moore and her daughter are already homeless. Lana has an extra room and Juanita is willing to work as a domestic for room and board.

What happens though is the two women bond like sisters despite the racial differences. The girls who grow up to be Sandra Dee and Susan Kohner also bond, but Kohner who is light skinned passes for white in school and away from home in general. She publicly repudiates her mother several times because she doesn't want it known she's black. Being cut off like that from her daughter wounds Moore to the depths of her soul beyond any comprehension.

Turner has her problems too when success comes her way she has less and less time for Dee and Dee looks to Moore for the woman's answers to teen issues when reaching puberty. If you've seen the 1934 version you know how this will all resolve itself.

The two Oscars that Imitation Of Life earned were for Moore and Kohner in the Best Supporting Actress category. Both lost to Shelley Winters for The Diary Of Anne Frank another story about prejudice. But the whole cast is just brilliant. And the ending will move you even if you've had an encounter with Medusa.

Moore's whole life is her daughter which makes the way Kohner treats her even more painful. Turner has several men in her life each with a character flaw or two. John Gavin is a nice man, but a male chauvinist. Dan O'Herlihy is playwright who has an ego a mile wide. And Robert Alda as an agent just can't tame his wolfish ways.

Fannie Hurst's novel was powerful indictment against racism and the damage self hate can do. Hurst was also a lesbian and she could see that from a sexual perspective as well. Closeted gays passing for straight in positions of power can and have done incalculable damage to their brothers and sisters.

In that vein this review is dedicated to Andy Humm who made that remark to me years ago and it's in the past few years I've seen the wisdom behind that statement.

Don't ever pass this powerful film by if it is broadcast.

A lot of comments were written on this movie. I recently viewed it for the first time - and I liked it.

The story is interesting and exciting. There are remarkable scenes in it especially with Juanita Moore. There is likable acting by Lana Turner and Sandra Dee too. A special bonus is the appearing of Mahalia Jackson. Of course there are some scenes which seem overloaded towards the end.

But I was most impressed by leading man John Gavin. I wonder why not only one comment focuses on him. Never recognized that he was looking that good. And I think his acting was everything but wooden.

there are still yet very many classics needing be made into DVD and this has made it but wish Back Street and Madame X as well as Connie Stevens in Susan Slade and Valley of the Dolls would come out like this has .. I notice now that on Amazon you can get this version as well as the older Claudette Colbert version together :) woo hoo ..

this is the saddest movie of all time, I remember watching it many years ago before with my mom before she passed away in 1976 many many times .. its just too bad she did't't live to see all the technology of the future to see what they can do with movies now :(

oh well, hope all enjoy it as much as I did and still do