New York. Lora, a struggling actress, loses her little daughter, Susie, on the beach, but she is luckily found by African American Annie and her mulatto daughter Sarah Jane. Grateful, Lora hires Annie to be her maid and live in her apartment. Lora falls in love with photographer Steve, but dumps him for playwright David who gives her the leading role in a hit play. 10 years later, Lora is famous and meets Steve again, so she takes a break from acting. An 18-year old Sarah Jane is ashamed of her black mother and wants to pretend she is white. Sarah Jane leaves the house, but when Annie catches her as a dancer in a night club, they argue. Sarah Jane refuses any further contact with her mother, who let's her live alone in California. Annie dies from a disease. At her funeral, Sarah Jane returns and expresses remorse at her coffin.
Douglas Sirk's final film before his retirement from directing, "Imitation of Life" works better than his other thin melodramas because it actually has two interesting stories to tell, which enrich his rather banal dialogue: one revolves around the always fascinating notion of a struggling actress trying to make it, in this case Lora (Lana Turner); the other about racial discrimination, in the form of a mulatto teenager, Sarah Jane, trying to pretend to be white, and being ashamed to be seen publicly with her black mother Annie (played endearingly by Juanita Moore). The first story is even today easy to identify with, since Lora admits to Steve that she saved money for five years to move to New York and try to make it there, with the highlight being her meeting with a Harvey Weinstein-like agent, Loomis, who admits that she has to allow to be seduced to secure roles: "If some producer with a hand as cold as a toad wants to do a painting of you in the nude, you will accommodate him for a very small part." - "You're disgusting!" - "Maybe I am. But let me assure you, once you make it, you can be idealistic all of 10 seconds before you die." He is the funniest character in the film, but quickly disappears later on.
The first half is excellent, but the second half again shows signs of weakness and Sirk's tendency to resort to soap opera repertoire. Film critic Damir Radic called it the "best melodrama ever made", but that doesn't quite absolve it from some errors. The second story proves to be relevant due to its social criticism of the American 50s era, and advocating for a more humanistic world that cares for the character of people, not their physical appearance. Annie is such a noble, kind and affectionate mother, and thus Sarah Jane's shame for her is heartbreaking. As Annie says: "It's a sin to be ashamed of what you are... How do you explain to your child she was born to be hurt?" Some scenes are banal and badly directed (Sarah Jane's boyfriend is seen in only one sequence, when he slaps her upon finding out her mother is black, which is preposterous trash), and the second half "steals" the story too much from the protagonist Lora. However, the finale is so emotional that it could make even those viewers with a heart of stone cry, and make their tears flood the world.
Grade:+++
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