Imitation of Life (1934)
Closed CaptioningJohn M. Stahl
Open iTunes to preview, buy, and download this movie.
Plot Summary
The lives of a widow and her housekeeper are united first in mutual need, then success and ultimately, in heartache in this Academy Award®-nominated Best Picture. Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers are superb as Bea and Delilah, two women with young daughters who build a life and a fortune together selling Delilah's pancake recipe. But success doesn't save them from sorrow with the passing years. Delilah's light-skinned teenager rejects her mother and her race, while Bea must choose between the man she loves and the daughter who loves him, too. Now all of them will pay the price of love in this spellbinding classic, revered as one of the all-time Hollywood tear-jerkers, from collaborators William Hurlbut and Preston Sturges.
Credits
Director
Screenwriter
Producer
Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
100%- Reviews Counted: 7
- Fresh: 7
- Rotten: 0
- Average Rating: 8.3/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: Made at the height of the Depression, John Stahl's Oscar-nominated melodrama prided itself for its liberal views, but even then the racial angle and Louise Beavers' acting were controversial.
Customer Reviews
Great Movie
This film is much better than the later version. The other is so dramatic and over the top, but this one is well played.
TEN Stars!
This is my all-time favorite movie. I happened to catch it one day, on vacation, in the hotel room. That was over 25 years ago! This movie made me a HUGE Claudette Colbert fan! This movie is simply amazing - amazing story that is well ahead of it's time, considering racial prejudice in the 1930s, amazingly acted by all the players. It's a beautiful story of motherhood, sacrifice, and the friendship and love of two women - one black and one white.
You MUST see this movie. The 1959 version is good too, but this is the orginal movie made 25 yars earlier, and it's much, much better.
One of my favorites
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this movie. I bought it on VHS and wanted to purchase it via iTunes. Unfortunately it can only be rented, but it is still a great movie.
Viewers Also Bought
- Imitation of Life (1959)
- Douglas Sirk
- View In iTunes
- In This Our Life
- John Huston
- View In iTunes
- The Great Lie (1941)
- Edmund Goulding
- View In iTunes
- Mr. Skeffington
- Vincent Sherman
- View In iTunes
- Daisy Kenyon
- Otto Preminger
- View In iTunes
- $9.99
- Genre: Drama
- Released: 1934
- © 1934 Universal Pictures Corporation. Renewed 1962 Universal Pictures Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.