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John Stahl
Back Street
Neither of the two protagonists of
Imitation of Life (1934), from the Fanny Hurst novel,
can be fully happy, despite being good, honest, loving and hard-working.
Both have the same curse: their entire life is invested in their daughters,
who will both disappoint them. They will both have to surrender their lives
(one by dying and the other one by remaining single) in order to fulfill
their mission towards their daughters. The story is not about two women
starting a successful business, but about two women who become very close
friends, almost sisters, and that share the destiny of being mothers.
A young white widow, Beatrice, with a baby girl, meets a
black widow, Delilah, a good woman who is looking for a job as a maid.
The two become very close friends, taking care of each other's daughter.
Beatrice has kept the maple-syrup business of her husband aline, and
Delilah is a master of pancakes. Beatrice decides to pool together their
skills and open a store. The store is successful. Not only do they pay off
their debts, but they also impress a stranger, Helmut, who tells them how to get rich:
"box it". They start selling pancake dough by the millions, and become staples
of the high society. When a gentleman, a friend of Helmut, who has now
become a partner in the business, falls in love with Bea, love also enters
the life of the woman.
The good-hearted Delilah has one major problem: her daughter Piola is ashamed
of being black, and, being a light-skinned mulatto, she tries to hide her race
to the other children. Now a grown-up, she runs away. Delilah and Bea find her
working in a restaurant: the girl is ashamed of her and pretends not to know
her. Back home, she tells Delilah that she doesn't want to be found, that
she wants to live her life as a white woman.
At the same time, Bea's daughter has taken advantage of her mother's absence
to seduce her mother's fiance. When her mother comes back, the fiance pretends
nothing has happened while he is secretely meeting the daughter.
Delilah dies of a heartbreak while Bea begins to have suspicions about
her daughter and her fiance.
At the (majestic) funeral, Piola comes to cry on her mother's coffin, and to
finally accept her destiny as a black woman. Bea decides to call off the
wedding with her fiance, knowing that this is the only way to regain
confidence with her daughter.
Leave Her to Heaven
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