Imitation of Life

The second film adaptation of Fannie Hurst’s novel stars Lana Turner as Lora Meredith,  a white, widowed mother who dreams of a career on Broadway. She befriends Annie Johnson (Moore), a Black single mom and domestic, whose daughter Sarah passes as white. Examining the intergenerational conflicts, racial bigotry, and sexism, master of melodrama Douglas Sirk’s 1959 film is now widely considered a landmark interrogation of mid-century American life.