History Film / ImitationOfLife1959

** Susie's counterpart in the novel was the first person to call Peola (Sarah Jane's counterpart) black as an insult, and actually has an affair with Steve. In the film here the worst thing she does to Sarah Jane is [[InnocentlyInsensitive ask if she's dating a black boy or try to get her to play with the black doll]][[note]]the latter doesn't even appear to be an intentional comment on Sarah Jane's race; Suzie just happened to have a new black doll she was willing to give to Sarah Jane, while her white doll was a treasured possession she'd had since she was a baby and wasn't willing to part with[[/note]]. [[spoiler:In addition, her attraction to Steve is now a PrecociousCrush that goes nowhere]].

** Susie's counterpart in the novel was the first person to call Peola (Sarah Jane's counterpart) black as an insult, and actually has an affair with Steve. In the film here the worst thing she does to Sarah Jane is [[InnocentlyInsensitive ask if she's dating a black boy or try to get her to play with the black doll]][[note]]the latter doesn't even appear to be an intentional comment on Sarah Jane's race; Suzie just happened to have a new black doll she was willing to give to Sarah Jane[[/note]]. [[spoiler: Her attraction to Steve is now a PrecociousCrush that goes nowhere]].

** Susie's counterpart in the novel was the first person to call Peola (Sarah Jane's counterpart) black as an insult, and actually has an affair with Steve. In the film here the worst thing she does to Sarah Jane is [[InnocentlyInsensitive ask if she's dating a black boy or try to get her to play with the black doll]][[note]]the latter doesn't even appear to be intentional; Suzie just happened to have a new black doll she was willing to give to Sarah Jane[[/note]]. [[spoiler: Her attraction to Steve is now a PrecociousCrush that goes nowhere]].

** Susie's counterpart in the novel was the first person to call Peola (Sarah Jane's counterpart) black as an insult, and actually has an affair with Steve. In the film here the worst thing she does to Sarah Jane is [[InnocentlyInsensitive ask if she's dating a black boy or try to get her to play with the black doll [[note]]the latter doesn't even appear to be intentional; Suzie just happened to have a new black doll[[/note]]]]. [[spoiler: Her attraction to Steve is now a PrecociousCrush that goes nowhere]].

** Susie's counterpart in the novel was the first person to call Peola (Sarah Jane's counterpart) black as an insult, and actually has an affair with Steve. In the film here the worst thing she does to Sarah Jane is [[InnocentlyInsensitive ask if she's dating a black boy or try to get her to play with the black doll]]. [[spoiler: Her attraction to Steve is now a PrecociousCrush that goes nowhere]].
* BadBadActing: David the writer/director is appalled at Lora's "goggle-eyed takes" while reading scenes from his play. As it turns out Lora doesn't like the lines, her RefugeInAudacity in telling him so gets her a bigger part.

* FriendsRentControl: Lora's first home in New York is still quite nice for a struggling actress trying to support a young daughter. She even has room for a live-in housekeeper and her young daughter to move in. She does mention in a conversation with Steve that she saved up money before she moved to New York.

* HotterAndSexier: In the book Pecola is found working at a whites only restaurant. In this film Sarah Jane is a dancer who first is seen in a BikiniBar and later in a chorus at an LA theatre.

* {{Mammy}}: Annie is actually called a Mammy, and she certainly seems content to be a servant to Lora, and she pretty much raises Susie as well as her own child Sarah Jane, so this trope is more or less played straight. However, it's interesting to note that in the 1934 version, the Annie character (called "Delilah") is much more servile--she actually makes the Lora character (called "Bea") rich with her own special pancake mix recipe, but doesn't even ask for a share of the royalties, continuing merely to serve Bea. Contrast this film where Annie has less of a HappinessInSlavery thing going and is merely a straight-up servant. There is also a pointed scene [[spoiler: during the funeral]] where Lora is surprised to find out that Annie has dozens and dozens of friends and an active social life that includes membership in a church and several lodges. Annie has been putting money aside for years to have a [[https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/black-funeral-homes-mourning/426807/ traditionally Afro-American gorgeous, lavish "homegoing" funeral]]. While Annie has been Lora's companion and confidant for years, Lora obviously knows little about Annie's life. Other characters frequently assume Annie is the maid of whatever place she goes to.

* PassFail: As in the novel, Sarah Jane's desire to pass as a white person and escape racism leads only to tragedy and heartbreak.

* BusbyBerkeleyNumber: Sarah Jane gets a job dancing in just such a number at an LA theater.
* ButNotTooBlack: It's in the plot! Sarah Jane was born light skinned and passes for white. Of course like many films of this era that featured 'tragic mulatto' characters, she was played by a non-black actress[[note]]Susan Kohner was of Czech Jewish and Mexican descent; Fredi Washington, who played the role in the 1934 film was however a light-skinned black woman.[[/note]]. Notably Annie is lighter skinned than Louise Beavers from the 1934 film, making it slightly more believable that she could have a fair child.
* BuxomIsBetter: Loomis establishes himself as a gross creep when he evaluates Lora: "You have a chest full of quality and quantity. I like that." (Well, it's Lana Turner, the TropeMaker for SweaterGirl, so he isn't ''wrong'', but he's a gross creep.)

* DeathByDespair: [[spoiler: Annie dies of...nothing, really, except grief over Sarah Jane forsaking her as she tries to pass in a white world. (In the book, she has cancer.)]].
* {{Deconstruction}}: The Lora storyline deconstructs the illusions of what makes a perfect family. Lora is a highly successful and glamorous career woman - with a BigFancyHouse, a posh boarding school for her daughter and an UnlimitedWardrobe. But for all this, she's been absent in her daughter's life and Susie has pretty much considered Annie her parent. What's more is that the seemingly ideal father figure Steve ends up as Susie's beau. This was a big criticism of 1950s values - which emphasised consumerism and the image of a nuclear, provided-for family.

* PassFail: As must always be the way in movies, Sarah Jane's desire to pass as a white person and escape racism leads only to tragedy and heartbreak.
* PrecisionFStrike: Frankie's line "Is your mother a nigger?" comes out of nowhere, and leads directly to the horrifying scene where Frankie beats up Sarah Jane in the alley.

* BikiniBar: Strangely mixed with TheChanteuse, to the extent that it's not quite clear what's supposed to be going on. Annie tracks Sarah Jane down to a rather skeevy nightclub, where Sarah Jane's onstage in a corset and stockings--but she's singing a song. Annie's horror at discovering this scene does sort of imply that Sarah Jane has become some sort of late '50s equivalent of a Bikini Bar stripper.

* LikeGoesWithLike: Sarah Jane is very annoyed when both Annie and Lora assume the boys she's dating are black.

* {{Mammy}}: Annie is actually called a Mammy, and she certainly seems content to be a servant to Lora, and she pretty much raises Susie as well as her own child Sarah Jane, so this trope is more or less played straight. However, it's interesting to note that in the 1934 version, the Annie character (called "Delilah") is much more servile--she actually makes the Lora character (called "Bea") rich with her own special pancake mix recipe, but doesn't even ask for a share of the royalties, continuing merely to serve Bea. Contrast this film where Annie has less of a HappinessInSlavery thing going and is merely a straight-up servant. There is also a pointed scene [[spoiler: during the funeral]] where Lora is surprised to find out that Annie has dozens and dozens of friends and an active social life that includes membership in a church and several lodges. Annie has been putting money aside for years to have a [[https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/black-funeral-homes-mourning/426807/ traditionally Afro-American gorgeous, lavish "homegoing" funeral]]. While Annie has been Lora's companion and confidant for years, Lora obviously knows little about Annie's life.

* AdaptationalHeroism: [[spoiler: Sarah Jane realises her mistakes and shows up at Annie's funeral, while her book counterpart moved to Bolivia and never returned]].

* TheCameo: World class gospel singer Mahalia Jackson appears in one scene, singing "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVyemjMU8co Troubles of the World]]" at Annie's funeral. Up-and-comer Troy Donahue has one scene, but a dramatic one, as Sarah Jane's evil boyfriend.

* DeathByDespair: Annie dies of...nothing, really, except grief over Sarah Jane forsaking her as she tries to pass in a white world. (In the book, she has cancer.)

* ImColdSoCold: Annie does the "I'm tired" variant during her DeathByDespair.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Lora is an actress played by Lana Turner, and her own daughter Sandra Dee calls her out on her melodramatic approach to motherhood:

* {{Mammy}}: Annie is actually called a Mammy, and she certainly seems content to be a servant to Lora, and she pretty much raises Susie as well as her own child Sarah Jane, so this trope is more or less played straight. However, it's interesting to note that in the 1934 version, the Annie character (called "Delilah") is much more servile--she actually makes the Lora character (called "Bea") rich with her own special pancake mix recipe, but doesn't even ask for a share of the royalties, continuing merely to serve Bea. Contrast this film where Annie has less of a HappinessInSlavery thing going and is merely a straight-up servant. There is also a pointed scene during the funeral where Lora is surprised to find out that Annie has dozens and dozens of friends and an active social life that includes membership in a church and several lodges. Annie has been putting money aside for years to have a [[https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/black-funeral-homes-mourning/426807/ traditionally Afro-American gorgeous, lavish "homegoing" funeral]]. While Annie has been Lora's companion and confidant for years, Lora obviously knows little about Annie's life.

* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Sarah Jane cries bitterly at her mother's funeral after parting with her on bad terms, breaking down out of her guilt at not being there for Annie. ''Now'' she tells the huge crowd "let me through, it's my mother."

* TheCameo: World class gospel singer Mahalia Jackson appears in one scene, singing a song at Annie's funeral. Up-and-comer Troy Donahue has one scene, but a dramatic one, as Sarah Jane's evil boyfriend.

* DeathByDespair: Annie dies of...nothing, really, except grief over Sarah Jane forsaking her as she tries to pass in a white world.

* {{Mammy}}: Annie is actually called a Mammy, and she certainly seems content to be a servant to Lora, and she pretty much raises Susie as well as her own child Sarah Jane, so this trope is more or less played straight. However, it's interesting to note that in the 1934 version, the Annie character (called "Delilah") is much more servile--she actually makes the Lora character (called "Bea") rich with her own special pancake mix recipe, but doesn't even ask for money, continuing merely to serve Bea. Contrast this film where Annie has less of a HappinessInSlavery thing going and is merely a straight-up servant. There is also a pointed scene where Lora is surprised to find out that Annie has dozens and dozens of friends and an active social life that includes membership in a church and several lodges. While Annie has been Lora's companion and confidant for years, Lora obviously knows little about Annie's life.

* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Sarah Jane cries bitterly at her mother's funeral after parting with her on bad terms, breaking down out of her guilt at not being there for Annie.

'''Lora:''' Well...it doesn't matter. He's the way you imagine him.\\

'''Sarah Jane:''' He was like me...white.

!!Tropes:

''Imitation of Life'' was the second adaptation of a novel by Fannie Hurst, the first having been [[Film/ImitationOfLife1934 made in 1934]] with Creator/ClaudetteColbert in the Turner part. It was the last film for Creator/DouglasSirk.

* BaitAndSwitch: The film was promoted as a melodrama about Lara Turner's Lora who is a middle-class white woman who becomes a major actress while also raising her daughter as a single mother (she is present in all the posters for the film) but the true storyline is about her black servant Annie and her tense relationship with her mixed-race daughter Sarah Jane, who tries to make something of her life by passing as white.

* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Sarah Jane cries bitterly at her mother's funeral after parting with her on tearful terms, and breaking down buckets out of her guilt at not being there for her.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: In a surprisingly shocking scene, Sarah Jane gets beaten to a pulp by her date when she finds out that that she's passing for white despite being mixed race. It was pretty rare and unexpected to see such domestic violence on screen, especially in a Technicolor melodrama.

* PrecisionFStrike: Frankie's line "Is your mother a nigger?" Comes out of nowhere and leads directly to the horrifying scene where Frankie beats up Sarah Jane in the alley.
* StayInTheKitchen: The film is about how women in 50s-America tried to form a career of themselves, and how their difficulties break down on both class and race lines, as well as the generational gap between women raised in TheGreatDepression and those coming of age in TheFifties.

''Imitation of Life'' is a 1959 film directed by Creator/DouglasSirk, starring Creator/LanaTurner, Juanita Moore, John Gavin, Susan Kohner, and Creator/SandraDee.

'''Lora:'''"Well...it doesn't matter. He's the way you imagine him.\\

* BikiniBar: Strangely mixed with TheChanteuse, to the extent that it's not quite clear what's supposed to be going on. Annie tracks Sarah Jane down to a rather skeevy nightclub, where Sarah Jane's onstage in a corset and stockings--but she's singing a song. Annie's horror at discovering this scene does sort of imply that Sarah Jane has become some sort of Bikini Bar stripper.

--> '''Susie''': "Mother...stop acting."

-> '''Sarah Jane''': "Was Jesus white or black?"\\
'''Lora''': "Well...it doesn't matter. He's the way you imagine him."\\

'''Sarah Jane''': "He was like me...white."

''Imitation Of Life'' is a 1959 film directed by Creator/DouglasSirk, starring Creator/LanaTurner, Juanita Moore, John Gavin, Susan Kohner, and Creator/SandraDee.

''Imitation Of Life'' was the second adaptation of a novel by Fannie Hurst, the first having been [[Film/ImitationOfLife1934 made in 1934]] with Creator/ClaudetteColbert in the Turner part. It was the last film for Creator/DouglasSirk, who went out on a high note.

''Imitation Of Life'' is a 1959 film directed by Creator/DouglasSirk, starring Creator/LanaTurner, Juanita Moore, John Gavin, Susan Kohner, and Sandra Dee.

--> '''Susie''': "Mother...stop acting"

* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: [[spoiler:Sarah Jane cries bitterly at her mother's funeral after parting with her on tearful terms, and breaking down buckets out of her guilt at not being there for her]].

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: In a surprisingly shocking scene, Sarah Jane gets beaten to a pulp by her boyfriend when she finds out that that she's passing for white despite being mixed race.

* PassFail: As must always be the way in movies, Sarah Jane's desire to pass as a white person and escape racism leads only to tragedy and heartbreak.