Time to pull out the tissue boxes, everybody- today's Mother's Day movie is a major tearjerker from the 1950's, and by the end it's practically daring you not to tear up. Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life is about two moms, a white woman (Lana Turner) and a black woman (Juanita Moore), and their relationship with each other and their respective daughters. Actually, even though Lana Turner and Sandra Dee get top billing, the major story here is the Juanita Moore/Susan Kohner relationship, and both actresses got Oscar nominations for their roles. Kohner is a light skinned girl who can "pass" for white and wants to disown her own mother in order to do it. The tragedy of this situation is the focal point of the story, and like in Mildred Pierce, it kind of makes you hate the kid in this movie, even though she's slightly redeemed at the end (but not before it's too late). Douglas Sirk's movies were considered trashy soap operas at the time of their release in the 1950's, but audiences loved them and they remain engrossing today, like the best soaps will always be. This is a remake of a 1933 movie with Claudette Colbert (one of the earliest movies about race relations ever), but this one can tackle the issue more directly thanks to the time in which it was made and it gives the Juanita Moore character a more fleshed out role.
Original Trailer:
