Imitation of Life (John M. Stahl, US, 1934)

Stahl’s was the first adaptation of Fannie Hurst’s tearjerking tale of two working mothers, one black, one white. Widowed Bea (Claudette Colbert) begins as a syrup saleswoman and eventually builds a pancake-mix empire using the special recipe of her maid and best friend, Delilah (Louise Beavers). Imitation of Life has been both praised and condemned for its treatment of race; its engagement with the Mammy stereotype is complicated. “We’s gone a long way,” Delilah tells Bea, but even if “Aunt Delilah” is the face on the pancake box, she still sleeps in the basement while Bea retires upstairs. And while both women make sacrifices for their daughters, Delilah takes the deeper losses. Unlike Douglas Sirk, who made another adaptation 25 years later, Stahl made a point of casting an African American actress in the role of Delilah’s light-skinned daughter Peola. Fredi Washington plays Peola’s desperate attempts to pass for white as an outraged refusal to accept her “place”—maybe the strongest proof that this movie is not just selling syrup.

• Written by William Hurlbut, based on the novel by Fannie Hurst. Photographed by Merritt Gerstad. With Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington. (116 mins, B&W, 35mm, From Universal)