Imitation of Life
Short description
In New York, an aspiring actress and single mother named Lora Meredith meets Annie Johnson, a Black single mother who has nowhere to live, and takes her and her young daughter into her home. Annie runs the household and raises the two girls while Lora pursues a stage career that eventually makes her a star. As the years pass, Lora's daughter Susie feels pushed aside by her mother's success, while Annie's light-skinned daughter Sarah Jane, ashamed of her mother's race, tries to pass as white and pulls away from her. The two women remain bound to each other as their daughters' choices test the household they built. Lana Turner plays Lora, with Juanita Moore as Annie, Sandra Dee as the teenage Susie, Susan Kohner as the teenage Sarah Jane, and John Gavin as photographer Steve Archer.
Douglas Sirk directed the film, the eighth in the chronology of his features listed here, following Imitation of Life's predecessors such as Written on the Wind and A Time to Love and a Time to Die. The screenplay was written by Eleanore Griffin and Allan Scott, and Ross Hunter produced for Universal. Made for about 2 million dollars, it returned roughly 14 million worldwide. Ratings put it at 7.8 on IMDb from 20,000 votes and 7.4 on TMDB from 328 votes, while critics gave it 7.8 from 33 reviews, close to the audience score on IMDb.
What's left behind the scenes
- Despite the film’s modest budget, producer Ross Hunter refused to economize. Only live flowers were used on set, and the decorations were also real – from Laykin et Cie. They cost $1 million.
- The photograph shown by Laura reveals that there is no one behind her, however, at the beginning of the film, when the photograph was taken while Laura was looking for Suzie, the sidewalk was clearly full of people.
- Robert's office features a phone model that will not be available until the middle of the next decade.
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