Imitation Of Life

Star Review

Opening with a cascade of ersatz diamonds spilling over the credits, this is one film where appearances are wholly deceptive. On the surface, it is a glossy weepie about the relationship between an actress, her black maid and their two troubled children. Behind the sheen, however, there lurks a bitter mediation on racism, class and injustice.
The maid's daughter (an incendiary Susan Kohner) is half-caste and can pass for white. She is desperate for her heritage to be kept a secret, and continually tries to distance herself from her loving mother. This being a Douglas Sirk film however, it is this misfit who emerges as the film's most sympathetic character, and the selfish actress (Lana Turner, whose plastic quality is brilliantly used by Sirk), thriving on the dramatic, who remains the film's implicit villain.
The tremendous finale, at the lavish funeral of a major character, features the most unconvincing happy ending in Hollywood history - as Sirk himself stated "you don't believe the happy end, and you're not really supposed to." A brilliant slice of vicious melodrama.

Alex Davidson on 6th October 2006
View all 182 of Alex Davidson's reviews

Film Description

One of the best melodramas ever made, and probably Sirk's masterpiece. The relationship between an actress, her maid and their two very different children leads to one of the most embittered and subversive films of the 1950s - racism and class divide infiltrate their lives, and culminate in a truly brilliant final twenty minutes. A film to be watched, enjoyed and studied many times.

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In Stock - should be despatched within 72 hours. Despatched from Guernsey. Delivery times

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Film Details

Cast

Lana Turner, John Gavin, Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner

Technical Details