Imitation of Life (1934 film)
Encyclopedia
Imitation of Life is a 1934 American drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 directed by John M. Stahl
John M. Stahl
John Malcolm Stahl was an American film director and producer.Born in New York City, New York, he began working in the city's growing motion picture industry at a young age and directed his first silent film short in 1914. In the early 1920s Stahl signed on with Louis B...

. The screenplay by William Hurlbut, based on Fannie Hurst
Fannie Hurst
Fannie Hurst was an American novelist. Although her books are not well remembered today, during her lifetime some of her more famous novels were Stardust , Lummox , A President is Born , Back Street , and Imitation of Life...

's 1933 novel of the same name
Imitation of Life (novel)
Imitation of Life is a popular 1933 novel by Fannie Hurst, which was adapted into two successful films for Universal Pictures: a black-and-white film in 1934, and a color remake in 1959.-Plot summary:...

, was augmented by eight additional uncredited writers, including Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges , originally Edmund Preston Biden, was a celebrated playwright, screenwriter and film director born in Chicago, Illinois...

 and Finley Peter Dunne
Finley Peter Dunne
Finley Peter Dunne was a Chicago-based U.S. author, writer and humorist. He published Mr. Dooley in Peace and War, a collection of his nationally syndicated Mr. Dooley sketches, in 1898. The fictional Mr...

. The film stars Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...

, Warren William
Warren William
Warren William was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, popular during the early 1930s, who was later nicknamed the "king of Pre-Code". He was born Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota to parents Freeman E. and Frances Krech. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the...

 and Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:...

 and features Louise Beavers
Louise Beavers
Louise Beavers was an African-American film and television actress. Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s to the 1930s, most often in the role of a maid, servant, or slave. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Beavers was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, one of the four African-American...

 and Fredi Washington
Fredi Washington
Fredericka Carolyn "Fredi" Washington was an accomplished dramatic film actress, most active in the 1920s- 1930s. Fredi was a self-proclaimed Black woman, who chose to be identified as such, and wished for others to do so as well...

.

The film was released by Universal Pictures on November 26, 1934, and later re-issued in 1936. A 1959 remake with the same title
Imitation of Life (1959 film)
Imitation of Life is a 1959 American film directed by Douglas Sirk, produced by Ross Hunter and released by Universal Pictures, starring Lana Turner and John Gavin and features Sandra Dee, Dan O'Herlihy, Susan Kohner, Robert Alda and Juanita Moore as Annie Johnson. Gospel music star Mahalia Jackson...

 stars Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...

.

In 2005, Imitation of Life was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...

, and it was named by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

in 2007 as one of "The 25 Most Important Films on Race".

Plot

White widow Bea Pullman (Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...

) and her daughter Jessie (Juanita Quigley as a toddler, Marilyn Knowlden as an eight-year-old) take in black housekeeper Delilah Johnson (Louise Beavers
Louise Beavers
Louise Beavers was an African-American film and television actress. Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s to the 1930s, most often in the role of a maid, servant, or slave. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Beavers was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, one of the four African-American...

) and her daughter, light-complexioned Peola (Sebie Hendricks) — exchanging room and board for work, even though Bea is struggling to make ends meet herself. Delilah and Peola quickly become like family to Jessie and Bea. They particularly enjoy Delilah's pancakes, made from a special family recipe. Five years later, Jessie and Peola prove to be challenging children to raise: Jessie is demanding, not particularly studious, relying instead on her charm, and is the first person to call Peola "black" in a hurtful way, making it clear that their childhood idyll is doomed. Peola does not tell her classmates at school that she is "colored" and is humiliated when her mother shows up one day, revealing her secret.

Bea finds it difficult to make a living selling pancake syrup (as her husband had done). Using her wiles to get a store on the busy Atlantic City boardwalk refurbished for practically nothing, she opens a pancake restaurant on the boardwalk
Boardwalk
A boardwalk, in the conventional sense, is a wooden walkway for pedestrians and sometimes vehicles, often found along beaches, but they are also common as paths through wetlands, coastal dunes, and other sensitive environments....

 (with Delilah cooking in the front window). Later, at the suggestion of a passerby, Elmer Smith (Ned Sparks
Ned Sparks
Ned Sparks was a Canadian character actor. Sparks was well known for his deadpan expression and deep, gravelly voice.-Early life and career:...

), she sets up an even more successful pancake flour corporation, marketing Delilah as an Aunt Jemima
Aunt Jemima
Aunt Jemima is a trademark for pancake flour, syrup, and other breakfast foods currently owned by the Quaker Oats Company of Chicago. The trademark dates to 1893, although Aunt Jemima pancake mix debuted in 1889. The Quaker Oats Company first registered the Aunt Jemima trademark in April 1937...

-like figure. She gives Delilah a 20% interest in the business but Delilah continues to act as Bea's housekeeper. As a result, Bea becomes a wealthy business woman, but all is not well as the story advances ten years.
Eighteen-year-old Jessie (Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:...

), home on college vacation, falls in love with her mother's boyfriend, Stephen Archer (Warren William
Warren William
Warren William was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, popular during the early 1930s, who was later nicknamed the "king of Pre-Code". He was born Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota to parents Freeman E. and Frances Krech. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the...

), who is unaware at first of her affections. Meanwhile, Peola (Fredi Washington
Fredi Washington
Fredericka Carolyn "Fredi" Washington was an accomplished dramatic film actress, most active in the 1920s- 1930s. Fredi was a self-proclaimed Black woman, who chose to be identified as such, and wished for others to do so as well...

), ashamed of her African-American heritage, attempts to pass
Passing (racial identity)
Racial passing refers to a person classified as a member of one racial group attempting to be accepted as a member of a different racial group...

 as white, breaking Delilah's heart. Peola runs away from her Negro college and takes a job as a cashier in a white store. When her mother and Bea track her down, she is again humiliated to be identified as black and ultimately tells her mother that she is going away, never to return, so she can pass as a white woman without the fear that Delilah will show up. Delilah is literally heartbroken and, in a melodramatic scene, takes to her bed and dies, murmuring Peola's name and forgiving her. The black servants are glimpsed singing a spiritual as she passes, Bea holding her hand at the end. Delilah's last wish had been for a large, grand funeral, complete with a marching band and a horse-drawn hearse. Just before the processional begins, a remorseful, crying Peola appears, begging her mother to forgive her.

Peola returns to her Negro college and presumably abandons her efforts to pass as white. The film ends with Bea breaking her engagement with Stephen because of the situation with Jessie and doesn't want to hurt her feelings while being with him; although Bea promises to come find him once Jessie has forgotten him. The movie ends with Bea embracing Jessie while remembering Jessie's insistent demands for her toy duck (her "quack quack") back when she was a toddler.

Cast

  • Claudette Colbert
    Claudette Colbert
    Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...

     as Beatrice "Bea" Pullman
  • Warren William
    Warren William
    Warren William was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, popular during the early 1930s, who was later nicknamed the "king of Pre-Code". He was born Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota to parents Freeman E. and Frances Krech. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the...

     as Stephen "Steve" Archer
  • Rochelle Hudson
    Rochelle Hudson
    Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:...

     as Jessie Pullman, Age 18
  • Ned Sparks
    Ned Sparks
    Ned Sparks was a Canadian character actor. Sparks was well known for his deadpan expression and deep, gravelly voice.-Early life and career:...

     as Elmer Smith
  • Louise Beavers
    Louise Beavers
    Louise Beavers was an African-American film and television actress. Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s to the 1930s, most often in the role of a maid, servant, or slave. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Beavers was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, one of the four African-American...

     as Delilah Johnson
  • Fredi Washington
    Fredi Washington
    Fredericka Carolyn "Fredi" Washington was an accomplished dramatic film actress, most active in the 1920s- 1930s. Fredi was a self-proclaimed Black woman, who chose to be identified as such, and wished for others to do so as well...

     as Peola Johnson, Age 19
  • Juanita Quigley
    Juanita Quigley
    Juanita Quigley is a former child actress in American motion pictures of the 1930s and 1940s.-Career:Juanita Quigley was billed as Baby Jane in several early roles. She first attracted major attention as Claudette Colbert's three-year-old daughter in Imitation of Life...

     as Baby Jessie Pullman, Age 3
  • Alan Hale
    Alan Hale, Sr.
    Alan Hale, Sr. was an American movie actor and director, most widely remembered for his many supporting character roles, in particular as frequent sidekick of Errol Flynn. His wife of over thirty years was Gretchen Hartman , a child actress and silent film player and mother of their three children...

     as Martin, the Furniture Man
  • Henry Armetta
    Henry Armetta
    Henry Armetta was an Italian movie character actor who appeared in at least 150 films, starting in silents as early as 1915 to a movie released in 1946, after his death.-Biography:...

     as The Painter
  • Wyndham Standing
    Wyndham Standing
    Wyndham Standing was an English film actor. He appeared in 131 films between 1915 and 1948. A popular and much beloved leading man in the silent film era, he starred and costarred along many famous names of the day, both men and women. He and Ronald Colman were the stars of the now lost classic...

     as Jarvis, Beatrice's Butler


Cast notes:
  • Child actress Jane Withers
    Jane Withers
    Jane Withers is an American actress best known for being one of the most popular child film stars of the 1930s and early 1940s, as well as for her portrayal of "Josephine the Plumber" in a series of TV commercials for Comet cleanser in the 1960s and early 1970s.-Biography:Withers began her career...

     has a small part as a classmate of Peola, her fifth movie appearance.
  • Franklin Pangborn
    Franklin Pangborn
    Franklin Pangborn was an American comedic character actor. Pangborn was famous for small, but memorable roles, with a comic flair. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W.C. Fields films International House, The Bank Dick, and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break...

     appears uncredited as "Mr. Carven"

Theme

The theme of the movie, to the modern eye, deals with very important issues — passing
Passing (racial identity)
Racial passing refers to a person classified as a member of one racial group attempting to be accepted as a member of a different racial group...

, the role of black servants in white families, maternal affection—and remains very watchable. Some scenes seem to have been consciously filmed to highlight the fundamental unfairness of Delilah's position—for example, when, in Bea's fabulous NYC mansion, Delilah descends down the shadowy stairs to the basement where she lives while Bea, dressed in the height of fashion, floats up the stairs to her rooms, rooms that have been built on Delilah's recipe. Others highlight the similarities between the two mothers, both of whom adore their daughters and are brought to grief by their self-centeredness. Still others permit the audience to view Delilah as a figure of fun, often because of her ignorance about finance or her desire to stay in her humble role, yet by the end of the movie—especially with the long processional portraying a very dignified black community, Delilah has become a saintly icon to Bea and the audience.

Production

Fannie Hurst
Fannie Hurst
Fannie Hurst was an American novelist. Although her books are not well remembered today, during her lifetime some of her more famous novels were Stardust , Lummox , A President is Born , Back Street , and Imitation of Life...

's inspiration in writing her novel Imitation of Life
Imitation of Life (novel)
Imitation of Life is a popular 1933 novel by Fannie Hurst, which was adapted into two successful films for Universal Pictures: a black-and-white film in 1934, and a color remake in 1959.-Plot summary:...

was a road trip to Canada she took with her friend, the black short-story writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance...

. The novel was originally to be called Sugar House but was changed just before publication.

Universal borrowed Warren William from Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 for the male lead, but the studio had first wanted Paul Lukas
Paul Lukas
Paul Lukas was an Austrian-Hungarian-born actor.-Biography:Born Pál Lukács in Budapest, he arrived in Hollywood in 1927 after a successful stage and film career in Hungary, Germany and Austria where he worked with Max Reinhardt. He made his stage debut in Budapest in 1916 and his film debut in 1917...

 for the part. The actress playing "Jessie" as a baby changed her name from "Baby Jane" to "Juanita Quigley" during production of the film.

Universal had difficulty receiving approval from the censors at the Hays Office for the original script they submitted for Imitation of Life. Joseph Breen
Joseph Breen
Joseph Breen is an American soap opera actor.He played contract parts on both Guiding Light and Loving before being offered his most front-burner role to date: that of Lisa’s long-lost son, Scott Eldridge, on As the World Turns...

 objected to the elements of miscegenation
Miscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....

 in the story, which "not only violates the Production Code but is very dangerous from the standpoint both of industry and public policy." They also objected to some language in the script, and a scene where a black boy is nearly lynched for approaching a white woman whom he believed had invited his attention. Breen continued to refuse to approve the script even up to July 17, when the film had already been shooting for two weeks.

Imitation of Life was in production from June 27 to September 11, 1934, and was released on November 26 of that year.

All versions of Imitation of Life issued by Universal after 1938, including TV, VHS and DVD versions, feature re-done title cards in place of the originals. Missing from all of these prints is a title card with a short prologue that apparently was included in the original release. It reads:
Atlantic City, in 1919, was not just a boardwalk, rolling-chairs and expensive hotels where bridal couples spent their honeymoons. A few blocks from the gaiety of the famous boardwalk, permanent citizens of the town lived and worked and reared families just like people in less glamorous cities.


The scene in which Elmer approaches Bea with the idea to sell Delilah's pancake mix to consumers refers to a legend about the origins of Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...

's success, and has been credited with solidifying into popular consciousness the (untrue) secret of Coke's success — that is, to "bottle it".

Awards and honors

Imitation of Life was nominated for three Academy Awards - Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...

, Best Assistant Director
Academy Award for Best Assistant Director
In the first year of this award it referred to no specific film.*1933 winners** Charles Barton ** Rick James ** Charles Dorian ** Fred Fox ** Gordon Hollingshead ** Dewey Starkey...

 for Scott R. Beal, and Sound Mixing
Academy Award for Sound
The Academy Award for Sound Mixing is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most euphonic sound mixing or recording, and is generally awarded to the production sound mixers and re-recording mixers of the winning film. Compare this award to the Academy Award for Sound Editing...

 for Theodore Soderberg
Theodore Soderberg
Theodore Soderberg was an American sound engineer. He was nominated for six Academy Awards in the category Sound Recording.-Selected filmography:* Imitation of Life * The French Connection * The Poseidon Adventure...

.

In 2005, Imitation of Life was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...

, and it was named by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

in 2007 as one of The 25 Most Important Films on Race, as part of the magazine's celebration of Black History Month
Black History Month
Black History Month is an observance of the history of the African diaspora in a number of countries outside of Africa. Since 1976, it is observed annually in the United States and Canada in February, while in the United Kingdom it is observed in October...


DVD

Both the original 1934 film and its remake were issued in 2003 on a double-sided DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 from Universal Home Entertainment
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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