Bear with me a minute. I was just listening to a jazz singer being interviewed on the radio. She said there was a "scat virus" going around among vocalists. She meant it as a bad thing, but it's safe to say it came out sounding worse.
Anyway, last night I watched Douglas Sirk's 1959 film Imitation of Life. Here's a thumbnail: Aspiring actress Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) almost loses her daughter Susan at the beach. In the course of finding her she meets photographer Steve (John Gavin, pre-Psycho) who for better or worse falls in love with her. She also meets Annie (Juanita Moore), attending the beach with daughter Sarah Jane, whom Lora thinks Annie is paid to take care of. The confusion stems from the fact that Annie is black, but Sarah Jane doesn't look like she is. As Sarah Jane grows into a teenager (Susan Kohner) she more and more resents her heritage, determined to pass as white even as it takes her down the road of becoming a (G-rated because of the times) stripper and implied prostitute. At the same time Lora gains greater and greater success as an actress. All well and good, but she can't spend as much time as she likes with her own daughter Susan (Sandra Dee) who develops a crush on Steve.
If you read all that you might be thinking that it's a load of sheer nonsense. And yes, there are aspects of it which are ridiculous, possibly regressive. But Sirk is no dummy. The two main storylines are awkward in the joining together because they're meant to be. Whenever Lora tries to intervene in the issues between Annie and her daughter it becomes clear that while her intentions are good, she has no knowledge here and speaks with no authority. And while Sarah Jane is awful and bratty, she asserts that her life would be better if she were white. Well, she's right. The point is brought home in an upsetting scene where she sneaks out to meet her boyfriend, played by a cast-against-type Troy Donahue. He's heard rumors, asks if her mother is a nigger (yes, he uses the word) and beats her up.
It should also be noted that like all the Sirk films I've seen, this one is gorgeous, brightly colored, imaginatively lit. David Lynch tends to copy Sirk in the parts of his movies and TV shows that are supposed to look civilized. In fact Audrey Horne from Twin Peaks has a lot of Sarah Jane Johnson in her, just without the tragic mulatto baggage.
Anyway, last night I watched Douglas Sirk's 1959 film Imitation of Life. Here's a thumbnail: Aspiring actress Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) almost loses her daughter Susan at the beach. In the course of finding her she meets photographer Steve (John Gavin, pre-Psycho) who for better or worse falls in love with her. She also meets Annie (Juanita Moore), attending the beach with daughter Sarah Jane, whom Lora thinks Annie is paid to take care of. The confusion stems from the fact that Annie is black, but Sarah Jane doesn't look like she is. As Sarah Jane grows into a teenager (Susan Kohner) she more and more resents her heritage, determined to pass as white even as it takes her down the road of becoming a (G-rated because of the times) stripper and implied prostitute. At the same time Lora gains greater and greater success as an actress. All well and good, but she can't spend as much time as she likes with her own daughter Susan (Sandra Dee) who develops a crush on Steve.
If you read all that you might be thinking that it's a load of sheer nonsense. And yes, there are aspects of it which are ridiculous, possibly regressive. But Sirk is no dummy. The two main storylines are awkward in the joining together because they're meant to be. Whenever Lora tries to intervene in the issues between Annie and her daughter it becomes clear that while her intentions are good, she has no knowledge here and speaks with no authority. And while Sarah Jane is awful and bratty, she asserts that her life would be better if she were white. Well, she's right. The point is brought home in an upsetting scene where she sneaks out to meet her boyfriend, played by a cast-against-type Troy Donahue. He's heard rumors, asks if her mother is a nigger (yes, he uses the word) and beats her up.
It should also be noted that like all the Sirk films I've seen, this one is gorgeous, brightly colored, imaginatively lit. David Lynch tends to copy Sirk in the parts of his movies and TV shows that are supposed to look civilized. In fact Audrey Horne from Twin Peaks has a lot of Sarah Jane Johnson in her, just without the tragic mulatto baggage.
2 comments:
As I enjoyed reading your synopsis of Sirk's Imitation of Life the name of the movie rang a bell for me. It turns out I remembered seeing the 1934 version of the film that starred my favorite actress of that period, Claudette Colbert. The story was different in that Colbert's character, newly widowed, hires a black housekeeper who has a daughter who appears to be white. After the housekeeper shares her perfect pancake recipe with her employer Colbert markets it and becomes very rich - rich enough (and generous enough at that time) to share a percentage of the profits with the housekeeper. The two of them are close friends (an unusual setup in 1934) who are both concerned about their daughters. If you get a chance to see it I'm sure you'd enjoy it just as much as I did.
The young woman who played the housekeeper's daughter was Fredi Washington, an actress who refused to pretend to be white in order to make it big in Hollywood.
Thanks for the story and the reminder brought along.
Yeah, I think at some point I will have to go back and see the original. I actually have seen something with Claudette Colbert recently. It's called Midnight and it came out in, I think, 1939. She's an American broke in Paris and she fakes her identity, which Don Ameche alternately helps her and tries to bust her on. They're both very good, as is Mary Astor, who was actually the reason I took that movie out.
Fredi Washington's story is pretty amazing. Really the only way she could have had much of a career at the time was to have erased her identity. Black actresses could play domestics and...that's about it. So I'm glad at least that she found fulfillment outside of Hollywood.
Oh yes, that story. Little things that pop up in life. :)
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