Imitation of Life
1959
****½
Director: Douglas Sirk
Cast: Lana Turner, Juanita Moore, John Gavin, Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner, Robert Alda, Dan O'Herlihy, Karin Dicker, Terry Burnham, Mahalia Jackson
An aspiring actress and single mother is determined to make it on Broadway. She couldn't do it without her loving and devoted black housekeeper, whose daughter passes as white and is ashamed of her own racial identity. Douglas Sirk's final film is a powerful and very moving melodrama that deals with the complexities of race, identity, motherhood, societal pressures, and personal ambitions. Based on Fannie Hurst's 1933 novel, which was previously filmed in 1934.
