NFR Project: 'Imitation of Life' (1934)

 

NFR Project: ‘Imitation of Life’

Dir: John M. Stahl

Scr: William J. Hurlbut

Pho: Merritt B. Gerstad

Ed: Philip Cahn, Maurice Wright

Premiere: Nov. 26, 1934

111 min.

This film is a prime example of a “weepie”, or “woman’s picture” as it was called back then. A tear-jerking melodrama that goes for the good cry with relentless precision, it uses the fulcrum of race as a major plot point, only somewhat to its credit.

It’s derived from Fannie Hurst’s most popular novel, published in 1933. It was inspired by experiences during her friendship with Black writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. Undoubtedly the harsh and demeaning treatment suffered by Black people during the period were evident to even the most casual observer. Jim Crow was still in full force; there was nothing but theoretical equality of the races.

It's the story of two nominally independent women, each a widow with a daughter. Bea, played here by Claudette Colbert, has Jessie; Delilah (Louise Beavers), a Black woman looking to do homework, shows up mistakenly at her door one day. The two hit it off, and Delilah and her daughter Paola come to live with them.

Bea sells maple syrup, and inspired by Delilah’s special pancakes, opens a pancake restaurant on the local boardwalk. It proves a hit. A rough and sarcastic character, played by Ned Sparks, proposes the idea that they package and sell the pancake mix. Soon “Aunt Delilah’s Pancake Mix” has made them millions.

Now, so far, so good. Delilah is not portrayed as a clown or figure of fun, a new development in the portrayal of Black characters in mainstream film. However, she falls into another category of stereotype, the nurturing, humble, subservient Earth Mother Black mother. As written, she is a complete doormat, a kind and endlessly optimistic person, a saint. Beavers works wonders with her performance, crafting a three-dimensional character out of what she is given.

And he saintliness is soon tested. The children grow up, and they are all living together happily in a mansion (Delilah and Paola live in the basement) – or are they? Delilah’s daughter Paola is light-skinned, and is powerfully ashamed of her racial identity. Her mother counsels her to accept it, but Paola denies her mother’s existence, running away from college and seeking to “pass “ as white.

Paola is excellently played by Fredi Washington, a young actress who already had film experience – and experience of racial discrimination. In The Emperor Jones the year before, she was forced to darken her skin, lest her relationship with the much darker Paul Robeson be construed as miscegenation. “Do you know what it’s like to look white, and be Black” she cries at one point, insisting that her mother allow her to disown her. She runs away.

Naturally, this kills Delilah. Meekly, she succumbs to heartbreak. Her funeral is lavish; Paola comes to it and throws herself on the casket, begging for posthumous forgiveness. Everybody cries.

There is a second plot strand involving Bea’s daughter having a crush on her boyfriend, the dapper and gallant Steve (Warren William), but its intensity pales in comparison to the story of Delilah and Paola.

So, is this film a serious attempt to deal with race and perception? Or is it a cheap potboiler that exploits Black life just as mercilessly as all other attempts of the period to “understand” the Black person, as a Black person? You will have to decide for yourself.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: It Happened One Night.