Imitation of Life

I’ve seen the remake of this — by my favourite director, Douglas Sirk. It’s good! And strangely enough, Sirk has also redone another movie by John M. Stahl — Magnificent Obsession. Sirk’s version was better than Stahl’s, I think, so I’m wondering about this one…

… and whether the reason that Criterion released these two particular Stahl movies was because people remember the Sirk versions.

Man, that’s some drawn-on eyebrows.

No collar gap.

This is quite good! Louise Beavers is great, and of course Claudette Colbert is, too. The first third of this movie is wonderful — it’s snappy, fun rags to riches story that you can’t help love.

Then there’s the rest, and it’s… fine? The last bits drag, though.

I was mostly surprised by how little the Sirk version of this has in common with this version. His version of Magnificent Obsession is almost a scene by scene copy, but this movie has very little in common with the Sirk version.

I mean, it’s got “the concept of ‘passing'” in common, but none of the plot (except perhaps a scene or two). I wonder what the reason was — I think this plot is more interesting, really? I mean, the rags to riches bit; not the love story between Colbert and whatsisface.

Imitation of Life . John M. Stahl. 1934. ☐ ⚀ ⚁ ⚂ ⚃ ⚄ ⚅