Antonius Block What an interesting film this was. On the surface, you have Colbert in a charming role as a self-made woman who makes it to the top with pluck, ambition, and a secret pancake recipe she gets from a maid. But that's not what makes the movie interesting. Colbert's maid is played by Louise Beavers, an African-American, and also a single mother. Her daughter Peola, played by Fredi Washington, is light-skinned, and wants to 'pass' as white. There are several brutal, heart-wrenching scenes between the two of them – as a child (played by Dorothy Black), Peola is upset about being called black, believing it an insult; later in school, she has to slink out of an all-white classroom amidst stares and whispers to see her mother who has shown up unexpectedly; and finally, as an adult, pretending she doesn't even know her at her job, where she's also 'passed', and later telling her she wants to disown her entirely. Beavers' character is sweet and strong, and bears this suffering to her deathbed.These are the scenes with real emotional impact in the story, and it's stunning, though not surprising, that neither Beavers nor Washington where nominated for an Academy Award. But Colbert was, even though she was also nominated in the same year for 'It Happened One Night'. How true this trend was 82 years ago, and how true it is today (see 'Creed').Now it is true that the love story in the movie for Colbert with William Warren is captivating, and it gets complicated when her daughter falls in love with him as well, and despite no wrongdoing on his part, creates a dilemma for Colbert. I liked this twist, it was unexpected and created a little angst for the white characters, who were otherwise in beautiful clothes, sipping champagne, and dancing the night away. However, the resolution of this at the end pales in comparison to the resolution of Beavers' story which precedes it.The movie is a great snapshot of what pushing the boundaries meant in 1934. On the positive side, you have a single mother shown balancing family and work, and keeping control of her business as it skyrockets. You have Fredi Washington, a light-skinned African-American actress (who in real life disdained 'passing') hired to play the role of Peola, when it was much more common to hire whites. You have Colbert's character inviting Beavers into her home and not showing an ounce of racism as she talks to her, or concern when by hiring her they'll live together. And you have a movie that showed very sensitive racial subject matter, revealing to the audience the real struggle African-Americans go through, and in a way that was thoughtful, not exploitative.On the other hand, you have Beavers' being simple-minded, superstitious, and wanting to remain subservient to Colbert's, even when they've made enough money and it's no longer necessary. While it underscores her big heart, it also perpetuates a myth, one that is very convenient for Caucasians. Also, because the Hays Code had recently gone into effect, references to Peola being of mixed-race were avoided, because 'passing' itself was already dangerous ground, and the concept of racial mixing was a definite no-no. Her father is simply referred to as having been 'light-skinned'. Just as importantly, a scene in the script depicting a black boy being attacked and nearly lynched for coming up to a white woman was excised; conservative America was not willing to admit this shameful truth.All in all though, an important film. The Colbert story is cute on its own, but I wish the emphasis had been placed more on Beavers, that it had been a movie more from her viewpoint with the minor character and subplots belonging to Colbert instead. Fair or unfair, I knocked it down a half a star as a result.

sconn4200 I was amazed to learn that there was another version of "Imitation of Life", quite different from the one done in the 50's. Forever, I claimed the Lana Turner version as one of my favorite movies until I saw the original classic done in1934 with Claudette Colbert, handsome Warren Williams and Louise Beaver playing Delilah Johnson.The dedication and loyalty Ms. Beaver showed for her employer was so genuine and touching but, on the flip side, it also showed how naive she was about securing her own future. I immediately associated this film with the story of Aunt Jemima, since that title is synonymous with the "Mammy prototype" which can be categorized as a black female servant who is extremely protective of her white employer and feels she must take care of her. Miss Colbert, on the other hand, displayed admiral qualities since she insisted that Ms. Beaver profit from her labor.I think minorities would appreciate this version more than the latter because the "lessons learned" would have more significance.Great Storyline

Holdjerhorses That's the only thought that keeps running through one's head while watching this 1934 version of "Imitation of Life": "For its time . . . ." "For its time," this must have seemed a breakthrough in some ways, mainly its depiction of '30s racism. The same can be said for the 1957 Douglas Sirk version: "For its time . . . ." Certainly, in terms of film making, writing, directing and acting, the 1934 version is nothing out of the then-ordinary. It's stagy, slow and poorly written.Seriously: After the supposedly emotionally draining sequence of Louise Beavers' death scene and funeral, with the return of passing-for-white daughter Fredi Washington ("I killed my own mother"), followed by the ludicrously insulting coda of Claudette's utterance of the film's immortal last line, "I want my quack-quack," one can only wonder that this was all received as anything but a cheap joke posing as sloppy sentimentality.Colbert is terrific, as always. A wonderful actress throughout her long career. Still, knowing she early on insisted the left side of her face was more photogenic than the right, it's fascinating to witness her actor's vanity at work in every scene. But regardless of the quality of her material, Colbert never delivered a false line-reading, on screen or on stage. Even in French (which she spoke fluently).Louise Beavers is good, "For its time . . . ," but hardly gives a "breakthrough" performance, for 1934 or any other year. ESPECIALLY compared to Juanita Moore's amazing performance in this role 23 years later (with a better, but not THAT much better, script).Fredi Washington seems good, but it's hard to tell, since she was given so little screen time. Was her part so small because of the racism of the time? Probably. But it's unfair to compare Fredi Washington's bit role here to the electrifying Susan Kohner in Sirk's version.Note too that sound films of the early '30s were still not yet comfortable with "scoring" except for titles and end-credits. Incidental music had to come from an apparent on screen "source" like a radio or orchestra (the party sequence, here), it was thought.So, when a low off-screen Stephen Foster dirge underscores Louise Beavers' death scene, Colbert's daughter has to open the bedroom door to reveal a trio of heretofore unseen black household servants singing it outside in the hallway like some black-face "coon" trio, as they were called, suddenly dropped in from vaudeville's yesteryear Keith-Orpheum circuit.Even "for its time," there's no excuse for the sappy last line, meant to hearken back to the "innocent" days when the film began with Mommy bathing her two year old. Bad enough the line has to be said once, much less TWICE. But there it is."I want my quack-quack." Sure, Douglas Sirk's version has 23 years of film making experience on this one. But SOME films from the early '30s still shimmer and shine even today, nearly 80 years later.This one doesn't. Except as a curious relic whose only value is as an archive "for its time." Sirk's version is the definitive one, say what you will about its over-the-top "camp" elements. Yes, it too is "for its time." But it still packs a powerful emotional wallop and always will, as one of the best-produced, best-realized film melodramas of all time.

Ed Uyeshima Fannie Hurst's tear jerking 1933 novel about the sacrifices mothers make for their daughters spawned two popular movies separated by a quarter century of glacially-changing social attitudes - a highly regarded 1934 version that remains faithful to the book's narrative and an elaborate 1959 remake which changes certain plot details to service German-born filmmaker Douglas Sirk's heavily Baroque style of film-making. Both films maintain the same basic time-spanning storyline of two widows - one is a white woman who finds professional success but at a price that causes an unintended estrangement from her daughter, while the other is a black woman whose light-skinned daughter causes nothing but grief for all concerned.Directed by John M. Stahl, the black-and-white 1934 version focuses on Beatrice Pullman, a downtrodden white woman who bonds with Delilah Johnson, a cheery black woman, and opens up a waffle shop to support their daughters Jessie and Peola respectively. Their business becomes such a success that it gets franchised into a chain of coffee shops that market Delilah's waffle recipe and then turns into a major business venture producing the waffle mix en masse. Meantime, Delilah stays devoted to Beatrice as her maid (despite earning twenty percent of the company's profits), and together they raise their daughters. Beatrice eventually finds love with Stephen Archer, an ichthyologist for whom Jessie develops a crush. Far more seriously, Peola runs away to escape her black identity and puts Delilah into an emotional tailspin.In the same year she made "It Happened One Night" and DeMille's "Cleopatra", Claudette Colbert shows her trademark natural élan which allows her to be the emotional gravitational force her character Beatrice requires her to be. Louise Beavers, who made a career of playing sunny-faced maids, gets her one shot at a first-class role and plays Delilah with great poignancy despite the inherent racism behind the conception of the role. The rest of the cast is adequate, though the real standout is Fredi Washington, a seminal black actress who portrays Peola with searing resentment and deepening regret.