Reviews (10)

Douglas Sirk's Magical Unrealism & the Lost Art of Melodrama
On the surface, John Stahl's 1934 version of IMITATION OF LIFE and Douglas Sirk's later adaptation in 1959 appear quite similar. Based on the novel by Fannie Hurst (originally published in 1933), each of the two film renditions renders the story of a young woman divided between two worlds and her desperate search for her true identity. While Stahl's rather understated approach accomplishes the translation of Hurst's penetrating tale onto the screen with commendable proficiency, it is Sirk who improves upon it, amplifying the story into a masterful and illuminating social drama by exercising the devices of the melodrama to underscore and mine the significant issues of racial prejudice, fumbled motherhood, and materialism in American society in the 1950s.

Putting the "direct" in director, Sirk triumphs with his unabashedly frank portrayal of racial hatred in his adaptation. He also uses color to great and conspicuous advantage to identify the immense social divide between blacks and whites in the film. In deep contrast to the white hearse carrying Annie's body, the very white-appearing "family" of Lora, Susie, Steve, and Sarah Jane are relegated to follow from behind in a black limousine. The black versus white theme displays the opposing magnetic forces between which the biracial Sarah Jane finds herself caught. She is attracted to the white side of life but is naturally pulled toward the black side despite constant resistance. Ironically, only when she finally gives in to the latter's natural gravitational force is she positioned by default and virtually blended into the white domain, fundamentally due to the loss of her only perceptible black affiliation: her birth mother. (A fascinating point: This daughter's appearance at her mother's funeral is inspired by a similar scene in Stahl's version, but in fact the daughter in Hurst's novel doesn't return for the funeral; she has moved to Bolivia with a white man who has no clue about her black heritage).

Sirk also succeeds at accentuating the momentous tug-of-war between a woman's desire to have a successful career and her domestic accountability in the context of the 1950s. Sarah Jane possesses an ambition to get more out of life than what her hereditary role has assigned her, which makes her a lot like the career-ambitious Lora. Likewise, Susie is just as submissive to the cards life has dealt her as Annie is. Lora becomes an unwitting role model for Sarah Jane, and Annie an equally unwitting surrogate mother for Susie. Like Lora's emotionally empty acting career, Sarah Jane's sham of a white existence fails to provide her with the love she so desperately needs, something she eventually recognizes she cannot truly "live" without. For Annie, life in this fleshly world is a mere imitation of the real life that awaits her in Heaven. The exorbitance of Annie's funeral testifies to the emotional price paid with the loss of such a benevolent human being.

Because Sirk's production style is so excessively augmented, the messages concerning social issues that 1950s viewers would rather not face directly are discreetly concealed in a fashion that makes such propositions easier for them to swallow. Sirk's interiors are extremely over the top, and his exteriors are so fake one cannot help but know they are not real, providing the film with a sense of "magical unrealism." Only in this artificial sense of reality can viewers accept the contrived closure given to the social problems that embody the film's plot.

By riveting viewers' attention to the glamorous lifestyle Lora attains through career ambition, Sirk zeroes in on the genuine desires of women of the 1950s, particularly housewives or women who retreated from the workforce after WWII ended and their men returned home to resume their roles as the primary breadwinners. Having tasted the rewards of working outside the home, 1950s women dreamed of more than their contemporary home-based existence.

Ultimately, Sirk points out that people in life are forced to make choices based on the situations in which they find themselves. All people are, in some way, like Sarah Jane, stuck in a position wanting or needing more out of life than what has been provided freely. To obtain what they yearn for means sacrificing part of their own needs or wants. No one, he asserts, can realistically have it all, no matter how much they try to overcome the partitions that fabricate the very structure of society. Humans make choices in life based on what is most important to them. Annie believes life isn't much without the giving of love to the people around her. Like the message behind the theme song of Sirk's adaptation, Annie trusts in the notion that "every day would be gray and incomplete without the one you love." Lora seems to learn this truth about life near the end of the film, when she puts her career on hold so she can be with Steve and Susie on a full-time basis. (Interestingly, Hurst's novel ends with the white daughter falling in love with her mother's beau, much to the mother's horrific surprise.) Sarah Jane, however, learns this lesson too late, never to recover the time she could have spent bonding with her now-deceased mother.

Altogether, through his lavishly synthetic and ornate scenery, Sirk yields a high-pitched melody upon the dramatic canvas of life in his implosive acculturation of Hurst's tale of women struggling to find themselves in a complex world. In the end, he holds up his version of IMITATION OF LIFE as a mirror to his audience, showing them who they are and, perhaps more importantly, who they are not.

My Favorite Movie
Everytime someone ask me what is my favorite movie and I tell them "Imitation of Life" and they are amazed. Why do I say this movie? The story is amazing and I love how the Mother is loving and caring to her daughter inspite of her daughter's rejection of her race and her mother. I love the relationship between the mothers and the daughters. This movie is a must have.

Imitation of Life 1934/1959: GREAT COLLECTOR ITEM
I love the movie Imitation of Life. Although I had never seen the 1934 version before, I loved just as much I did the 1959 version. I watch this movie all the time and think that it's a movie that everyone should see. The message that the movie shows just how hard and the lengths that people will go to fit in into a society that tells them that they must look and act a certian way. This is a item that everyone should have in their DVD collection and I reccommand it to everyone.

Glad its only an Imitation
Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life is a parody of an earlier film by John Stahl. The film portrays a struggling white actress who befriends a homeless black woman, and they end up living together. The black woman, Annie, takes on the rols of maid, servant, and nanny for the white woman Miss Laura and her daughter Susie. Annie's daughter Sarah Jane is half white, and throughout the film we see her attempt, time and time again, to "pass" as a white girl. Through the technique of gestic acting, or over acting, certain themes and messages in the film are impressed upon us over and over again. Miss Laura, for example is a struggling actress looking for work. She seems to be the picture of beauty and femininity. In John Berger's book, "Ways of Seeing,"he brings up the notion of the surveyor and the surveyed. This refers to the manner in which women are looked at and watched by the male eye. They then internalize that look and begin to see themselves as men want them to be, and begin to act accordingly. Throughout the film, we watch Miss Laura being surveyed, and eventually we see her internalize the look. At first she is watched and photographed by her future love interest Mr. Steve. He takes a picture of her at the very beginning of the film when she has lost her daughter and is frantically searching for her. In his picture she is a concerned mother. There are very few times in the film when Miss Laura seems to actually think about Susie. Mr. Steve, though, has framed her as a mother and wife from the very start. There is part of her that wants to fit into Mr. Steve's vision, but she first feels that she must pursue her career. Later on in the film Miss Laura and Mr. Steve are reunited. It is at this point when Miss Laura internalizes Mr. Steve's vision and begins to survey herself as she had been surveyed by Mr. Steve throughout the film. She gives up her career to become the housewife and mother that Mr. Steve had always seen her as. Another theme that become blaringly obvious in this film has to do with the intersection of race, class, and gender. We see this most clearly in Sarah Jane's character. In Smith's article she discusses the need to "pass" as a white person because of racism that is present in a dominantly white society, as well as in reaction to the discrimination against people of color. Sarah Jane struggles throughout this film, beause she has spent her life living in Susie's shadow. She sees all of the advantages Susie has because of her successful mother, and she is constantly jealous of her white privileged life. Try as she might, Sarah Jane can never break away from the intersecting characteristics that make her who she is. She tries to pass as
a white girl who is trying to make it on her own, but she cannot break away from her black roots. Thankfully this film is only an imitation of life and not the way that people really behave. The gestic acting is painful to watch but it does do the job of getting Sirk's messages across loud and clear.

Great Double Feature. Great Value. Disappointing Transfers
I was very excited to hear about the release of the two versions of Imitation Of Life together on the same DVD. I had never seen the 1934 version and found it to be an equally enjoyable film as the 1959 one, although quite different (the main character is an entrepreneur versus an actress in the '59 version). The transfer for the 1934 version is decent considering it's age. I was more disappointed with the 1959 one. Granted, it was filmed in Eastman Color so one could not expect Technicolor brilliance, but the transfer is grainy and faded. To make matters worse, the layer change occurs at the worst possible place, as someone is running down the stairs (as with all DVD's, there is a slight pause at that time). This is very jarring; what was the engineer thinking? Layer changes ideally should be placed between a fade-out and a fade-in of scenes. Considering the price and the content, I would reccomend this DVD if you can ignore it's flaws. ... Read more

Description

Jane Wyman is a repressed wealthy widow and Rock Hudson is the hunky Thoreau-following gardener who loves her in Douglas Sirk's heartbreakingly beautiful indictment of 1950s small-town America. Sirk utilizes expressionist colors, reflective surfaces, and frames-within-frames to convey the loneliness and isolation of a matriarch trapped by the snobbery of her children and the gossip of her social-climbing country club chums. Criterion is proud to present this subversive Hollywood tearjerker in a new Special Edition. ... Read more

Reviews (22)

An elegant, classy sudser from director Douglas Sirk
Reuniting from the previous year's hit, "Magnificent Obsession", Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson play lovers torn apart by small town hypocrisy. Wyman is wealthy widow, Cary Scott. She falls in love with her gardener, Ron Kirby(Hudson),and is chastised by her community and loathed by her two grown children. Great, elegant melodrama from director-extraordinarre Douglas Sirk. The film starts off a bit slow, but the dramatic payoff is highly worth the wait. The cinematography, muisc, and dialogue all come together for a beautiful film event.

the perfect dvd? this could be it
Watching one of Douglas Sirk's 50's melodramas is slightly akin to visiting another planet. Everything about the Sirk reality is a bit askew: the people are basic and sincere, while their surroundings are heightened, beautiful and artificial (we know certain exterior scenes are filmed on sets, but the sets themselves are so big and elaborate they boggle the mind). It's a strange mix -- simple characters in an exaggerated world, almost like a David Lynch movie in which the only violence that occurs is emotional.

But if you give Sirk's movies time and attention and allow yourself to be taken in by the strangeness, they are surprisingly easy to accept on their own terms.

Sirk's 1955 film, "All That Heaven Allows," tells the story of the romance between a well-to-do widow and a young, dreamy, non-conformist gardener. It's the oldest problem in the world: they could be happy and in love if only it weren't for the other people around them.

I think the key to the success of this film is the performance of Jane Wyman as the widow. Her character is so fragile, yet also surprisingly strong. She says no more than she has to, but what she does say speaks on many levels. She's kind, but she's also after something she clearly wants very badly. Wyman is able to communicate these contradictions and complications with a calm, almost effortless stoicism.

The Criterion DVD is a marvel of technology. It has quickly become my favorite disk and there are a lot of disks that I like -- the picture and transfer are unbelievably crisp, the colors are richer than wet paint, the movie is restored to its proper aspect ratio, and you also get Fassbinder's essay on Sirk (he remade this movie in thoroughly different form with a film called "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul"), and there's also a long, fascinating interview with Sirk himself -- I'd never seen or heard any footage of the director until I saw this and the interview alone made it worth buying.

If you're a fan of Sirk, you're going to love this disk. And if you're not familiar with his work, this is the place to start.

............legends .............
..... women still wore tight corsets and just had to conform .... talk about Stepford .......

this one's a brilliant peek into Ike and Mamies USA - post WWII

SIRK, WYMAN .... HUDSON ...... brilliant trio.....

As Wyman's on screen son spats "You're just seeing a good looking bunch of muscles" - referring to Rock ... Yeah so what?

It's brilliantly lensed, costumed and directed by DIETLEF SIERCK [retitled Doug Sirk when he ventured - without English into the American movie-mill]. He certainly saved Universal's bacon back then ...........

The rest? The movie has inspired so many imitators and GOOD imitators - down to the Julianne Moore version recently ...

Rock, or rather Roy? Have to dwell on this one .... he rescued the studio so many times, especially later with the Day/Hudson comedies ... and more or less had the 'Lylah Claire' exit.

[There was even the rumor that all of his existing costumes were to be burnt - for fear of contamination - after his passing ..... sad little town!]

Elizabeth Taylor is currently too tired to hold his torch ...isn't it time for a Hudson retrospect?

Proceed!

[Great support by Agnes Moorehead as the clockwork 'friend' and the brat of a daughter Gloria Talbot .... whatever happened to HER?]

.... as for the rather obsolete Country Clubs .....

African American actors appear - briefly - but Sirk's indelible comment is quite there!

A good drama and New England scenery

Format: Black & White, Color
Studio: Universal Studios
Video Release Date: February 17, 1998

Cast:

Jane Wyman ... Cary Scott
Rock Hudson ... Ron Kirby
Agnes Moorehead ... Sara Warren
Conrad Nagel ... Harvey
Virginia Grey ... Alida Anderson
Gloria Talbott ... Kay Scott
William Reynolds ... Ned Scott
Charles Drake ... Mick Anderson
Hayden Rorke ... Dr. Hennessy
Jacqueline deWit ... Mona Plash
Leigh Snowden ... Jo-Ann
Donald Curtis ... Howard Hoffer
Alex Gerry ... George Warren
Nestor Paiva ... Manuel
Forrest Lewis ... Mr. Weeks
Tol Avery ... Tom Allenby
Merry Anders ... Mary Ann
Alan DeWitt ... Stationmaster
Jim Hayward ... John
David Janssen ... Freddie Norton
Anthony Jochim ... Mr. Adams
Paul Keast ... Mark Plash
Joseph Mell ... Mr. Gow
Vernon Rich ... Bill
Paul Smith ... Tom
Donna Jo Gribble ... Miss Taylor
Helene Heigh ... Ann
Eleanor Audley ... Mrs. Humphrey
Gia Scala ... Manuel's Daughter
Edna Smith ... Miss Edna Pidway
Rosa Turich ... Rozanna
Lillian Culver ... Mrs. Taylor
Helen Andrews ... Myrtle

Widow Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) is in love with Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson) who is 15 years her junior, but her two children and some of her acquaintances 0bject to their marriage. In order to mollify others, she puts off the marriage, until she finds that her friends and children are selfish and really don't care about her.

This is a good film, well acted and with beautiful New England scenery.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

a nice film with a great theme
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This movie follows the story of a widow (Jane Wyman) who falls in love with a much younger man (Rock Hudson) and risks alienating her adult children when she wants to marry him.

The movie has a great theme of family relations and the concern siblings have for a parent. This film was later remade by Rainer Werner Fassbinder as "Ali Fear Eats the Soul" which was also released by the Criterion Collection.

The DVD has numerous special features including a theatrical trailer, a slide show of lobby cards for the film, an illustrated essay about several of Douglas Sirk's films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and a rare BBC interview with the director Douglas Sirk. ... Read more

Description

Bathed in lurid Technicolor, melodrama maestro Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind is the stylishly debauched tale of a Texas oil magnate brought down by the excesses of his spoiled offspring. Features an all-star quartet that includes Robert Stack as a pistol-packin' alcoholic playboy; Lauren Bacall as his long-suffering wife; Rock Hudson as his earthy best friend; and Dorothy Malone (who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar© for her performance) as his nymphomaniac sister. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

Searching for potency amidst the oil derricks.
Criterion's 2nd soaper from Douglas Sirk, *Written on the Wind*, is not quite as superb as the other film, *All That Heaven Allows*. I refer to Sirk's own comment that the line between Art and Trash is very fine one. Here, the Trash element nearly obscures that line altogether: there are moments when it seems that we're simply watching a Technicolor rendition of *Dallas*. The story is preposterous in the TV-drama vein: a rich oil magnate's two spoiled-rotten adult children (Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone) indulge in self-destructive behavior whilst two interlopers (Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall) stand by helplessly and watch. Rock Hudson is the local boy from much less wealthy origins who befriends the brother and sister from childhood; Bacall is a secretary who Stack picks up and marries in a fit of attempted self-improvement. *Written on the Wind* makes sure that we like none of these people. Stack is a petulant, violent drunk, and his sister Malone is a nymphomaniac witch. As for Hudson and Bacall: Hudson, it soon becomes clear, rather enjoys his innate superiority over his childhood chums -- though that hardly prevents him from leeching off their prestige whenever it suits him. And Bacall, contra the reviewer just below me, is NOT intelligent or cool-headed -- she is obviously an airhead who has just enough sense to latch onto Stack's millions, despite the fact that she's dimly aware, right from the get-go, of what a destructive jerk he is. More than any other reason, the movie doesn't get 5 stars from me because of Hudson and Bacall, neither of whom were ever really good actors (the scenes with just the two of them are sort of tough to get through). But that's more than made up for by Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone: the former gives the performance of his life here; the latter is deliciously sex-crazed and mordantly destructive. (Malone deservedly won an Oscar.) And, once again with Sirk, we're left agog by the lurid Technicolor (the early scene in a Palm Beach hotel, with its purple and pink wallpaper, looks stunning), and the Freudian symbolism . . . the best of which occurs near the end, when Malone, alone in her dead daddy's office, contemplatively strokes a paperweight oil derrick. And Stack, drunk and fuming about his inability to get Bacall pregnant, racing in his sports car amidst the forest of oil derricks -- to say nothing of the loaded gun he keeps under his pillow at night -- is a veritable poster boy for male anxiety.

A melodrama for the ages
This is director Douglas Sirk's masterpiece, a brilliant work of cinema that functions as both a fiery melodrama and a piece of cool, detached irony. It all depends on how much subtext you want to read into this story of an impotent, alcoholic Texas oil baron and his middle-class nemesis. Although Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall are little more than vacant statues filling up cinematic space, Dorothy Malone and Robert Stack more than compensate with rich, over-the-top performances that leave you shaking your head in disbelief. That Sirk could get away with this sort of storytelling audacity within the rigid confines of 1950s Hollywood says much about his skill as an artist, just as it does about his desire to bend film genres to the breaking point. He never quite gets there, though, which is what makes his films so fascinating and multi-layered. This is a flick for both film buffs and casual moviegoers. Not to be missed.

MOURNING BECOMES MALONE......
Sure does, she never looked better in them black courthouse duds ..... perfect control, perfect character modulation ....quite an acting lesson!

SAME goes for the riveting performance of ROBERT STACK ....not sure what gives here - there are SO MANY MANY interpretations since then ... sterile? homophobic? alcoholic? Impotent? ... this one says it all and very NOM worthy for the stunning Mr. Stack [very hunkworthy - those bedroom scenes with Bacall].

As a matter of fact - all the leads, HUDSON, BACALL, STACK AND MALONE, provide great eye-candy. A pristine version of the DOUG SIRK stunner by Criterion.

Photography. Costumes, Art Direction as well as the score - all superlative!

To go on would be pointless - considering the censorship during this era ... this one still shines.

Nice cameo by GRANT WILLIAMS as the pump jockey ogled by Malone .... if you like your drama slightly OEDIPAL give or take a smattering of O'Neill ... grab an eyeful here.

A soap opera on the big screen
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This movie was groundbreaking in several ways. It can be descibed best as a soap opera.

It is the story of a family and their relationship with friend of one of the family members. A man falls in love with the sister of his best friend. Later both of them fall in love with a different woman who they fight over. She later marries one of them but when she becomes pregnant, the husband, believing himself to be sterile, accuses his friend of being the father.

The film deals with subjects rarely (if ever) mentioned in movies of the time and sparked controversey as a result.

The DVD has theatrical trailers for both this film and the film "All That Heaven Allows" which was also directed by Douglas Sirk and released by Criterion as well. There is also a huge presentation and slideshow of many of Douglas Sirk's other films.

Hello! MeloDrama!
No one moves a muscle in this film without dramatic music swelling around them- the bright 'nothing looks like that in real life' technocolor lends a hand in decorating this fairly ridiculous story.

While everyone was weeping & drinking & loving & longing, I couldn't help but wonder why Lucy (Lauren Bacall) married the drunk guy in the first place- it was never explained & everyone would have been saved a lot of grief if she had just kept her distance. But alas, there would have been no movie.

If you think there's drama in your life, watch this movie. You may not have the soundtrack to accompany your highs & lows- but it will teach you that even your burnt toast can be a true moment of despair if you just play it up a little.

Fun to watch, but hard to take seriously. ... Read more

Reviews (103)

Ultra-Sentimental 2nd Treatment of "Aunt Jemima Story"
"Imitation of Life" is the bitter sweet story of a black maid struggling with her light skin daughter who wanted to pass as white. The story begins in post WWII NYC when Lana Turner (in the role of a struggling actress) hires the maid to work for and live with Turner and her then 7 year old daughter (same age as the maid's little girl). Times are tough at first, but the 4-some gets on fine. Only little Sarah Jane (the maid's daughter) has constant trouble accepting her color.

The story spans about 15 years and shows various instances where the loving black maid is humiliated by her daughter who in the end disowns her mother. The ending is the ultimate heartbreaker; the film deserves 5 stars for that alone!

This is the 2nd Hollywood treatment of "The Aunt Jemima Story". The first version (1934) with Claudette Colbert has better acting, but is not quite as sentimental as the Technicolor Lana Turner film. The latter also has a memorable title song by Earl Grant (who usually plays the organ in his recordings, but here he sings).

I could watch this movie anytime, for no reason at all...it's the best in its class! This film is the ultimate in Hollywood tear-jerkers, and one of my favorite movies ever. Lana Turner was not exactly "Oscar-material", but neither was Marilyn Monroe--still they both captured an audience with their presence like few other actresses ever did. Nothing but pure "Hollywood Candy" here! ...

a true classic
One of the great Hollywood melodramas, IMITATION OF LIFE is based on the book by Fannie Hurst and is directed with style and emotion by Douglas Sirk.

A chance meeting throws together Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) and Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), two struggling widows who both have troubled relationships with their daughters. Lora is a Broadway starlet intent on hitting the big time, which will come at the cost of her daughter Susie (Sandra Dee), while Annie's daughter Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner) is a black girl with a pale complexion, who chooses to pass as white in order to avoid the hatred of a prejudiced world.

As years of denial and unawareness pass, the two girls slowly revolt from their mothers, and the story moves to its emotional and tearful conclusion.

Still compelling over 50 years later, IMITATION OF LIFE still has a message for modern audiences, and preserves the tour-de-force performances of Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner. Both were Oscar-nominated for their work here. The performances of Sandra Dee and Lana Turner (and Troy Donahue as Sarah Jane's violent boyfriend) are just as impressive.

The supporting cast includes John Gavin, Dan O'Herlihy, Robert Alda and Mahalia Jackson. The DVD includes the trailer. (Single-sided, dual-layer disc).

MOORE AND KOHNER - THE HEART OF THIS MOVIE
In 1959, Susan Kohner and Juanita Moore lost the Best Supporting Actress oscar to Shelley Winters for "Diary of Anne Frank." While Winters certainly was a seasoned and excellent actress, I don't see how one can overlook Susan and Juanita's gutwrenching performances. In spite of the star presence of Lana Turner and John Gavin, this movie's heart lies in the story of Annie and her mulatto daughter, Sarah Jane.
Director Douglas Sirk and his glamorized movies was the inspiration for the much acclaimed film, "Far from Heaven." One can see why Todd Hayes wanted to venture into this director's turf. Ross Hunter's glitzy production begged for its audience to become embroiled in Lana's problems becoming a big actress. But with the performances of Ms. Moore and Kohner, IMITATION OF LIFE achieves the status of one of our finest tearjerkers. Sadly enough, neither actress had much of a career after this, and what a shame. Their scenes together are so electric and heartwrenching, they deserved more. The final portion of the film wherein we lose Ms. Moore and her subsequent funeral are the stuff of Kleenex heaven.
Definitely one of the finest remakes of our time. Because of Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner!!!

Lana Turner and Juanita Moore
The struggles of two mothers with very different problems are detailed in this glossy but overly sentimental film. Lora Meredith and Annie Johnson establish a friendship purely by accident but they forge a bond that brings them together for life. Lora eventually finds stardom on the stage after many setbacks and disappointments but Annie has the impossible task of trying to make her mulatto daughter accept her racial heritage. Sarah Jane's shame at having a black mother is the main theme of the film while Lora's ups and downs on Broadway and eventual career success provide a counterpoint to the troubling themes of self-loathing and racial intolerance. Sarah Jane's relationship with Lora's daughter Susie is by turns sisterly and contentious because of Sarah Jane's jealousy and resentment towards Susie because she is white. Another sub-plot is Lora's relationship with Steve Archer, which also spans many years. Their romance always takes a back seat to Lora's stage career ambitions, which frustrates her handsome suitor immensely. Steve eventually becomes the object of Susie's affections as she grows into womanhood and her obsession with Steve causes problems later on. The film's famous last reel is touching and has the added effect of having Mahalia Jackson sing spirituals for the beloved Annie. Lana Turner is very beautiful and glamorous in this film and was never lovelier, but Juanita Moore's tortured Annie and Susan Kohner's ungrateful, mean-spirited Sarah Jane are the reasons for which this film is remembered.

Imitation of Life ( Germ241F @ SUNY Binghamton
Douglas Sirk's 1959 remake of John Stahl's 1934 film, Imitation of Life, is a parody of the original. In a comical rendition, Imitation of Life, addresses intersections of race, social and economic class, and gender in the film, as well as existing stereotypes, through the use of Neo-Brechtian gestik acting which means over-the-top, melodramatic and campy acting that is quoting a character and his/her emotions and exaggerates the role of a character in a situation. Sirk deliberately wanted to use gestik acting and avoided method acting (acting out what your emotions would really be, if you were in a certain situation) because he didn't want audiences to think that this film was real and to be taken seriously.
Two single-parenting mothers, Annie and Lora meet on the beach of Coney Island, in search of Lora's daughter Suzie. When Lora and Suzie find out that Annie and her daughter Sara Jane are homeless, Lora decides to let them live in her apartment as long as Annie agrees to contribute some help around the house, and do the dirty work for Lora. Annie is depicted as a parody for blackness, just because she has typical attributes of any nanny. A loving, nurturing, understanding, and caring mother is the stereotypical mother that society adores which is played out by Annie. On the other hand Lora is a neglecting figure in the eyes of Suzie. Annie is more like the mother for Suzie, but not Sara Jane. Sara Jane refuses to admit that she a daughter to a black woman and passes as a white girl while in school. Sara Jane fires up the racial tension in this film because of her denial and mistreatment towards her mother.
Lora meets a man named Steve, who almost right away, proposes to her. She denies the proposal in an effort to pursue her dream of becoming a Hollywood actress. Steve tries to make her stay, by telling her that she doesn't have to work, and that he will bring home to money. This shows us how Steve along with the majority of society view women and their roles of life. A women's life should be to stay home, clean, take care of the kids, and put dinner on the table, which is the old fashion way that much of male Americans viewed women to perform in. Opposite roles of gender for the male figure in this film was shown through Steve, who has found a detective out of now where, who has found Sara Jane and her place of refuge from her mother. This situation renders Steve as if he were Superman, the one being able to fix any problem.
This campy imitation of life is viewed throughout most of the film, except for the scene of Annie's funeral, where Mahalia Jackson sings a gospel song. Eulogy of Annie is brought to her through the singing voice of Mahalia. This scene is supposed to be a serious one among the other witty scenes, because the character of Mahalia is the only realistic one in this film and is not to be criticized. Mahalia does not exemplify the overly dramatic acting. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

one of the best films of all time
There is no doubt, this is one of the best films ever made. It is based on a true story, based during the Korean War. You better have plenty of Kleenex available--it's a tear-jerker. Don't miss this one.

Finding God Amidst The War
Rock Hudson stars as a minister who feels he has lost his calling and returns to the Air Force (he had fought in WWII) to train Korean soldiers during the Korean War. He and his men become involved with a group of Korean orphans and a young Korean/Indian woman that cares for them. While the war rages on, Hudson begins to find his way back to God, while also trying to protect the orphans. I initially believed that this was a war-action film, only to be surprised that, although there are several good fighting sequences, this was a more personal story of finding faith. Surprisingly, it meshes together well with the action. Hudson is earnest in his portrayal of the real life colonel, and he is well supported by Dan Duryea as one of his men/sidekick. There are some great lines about faith, and some of them made me think, especially the belief that God allows things to happen for reasons that may not be clear to us now, however bad they may seem at the time. In light of what has gone on in the world lately, this is a comforting thought. Battle Hymn is a well crafted, inspiring movie that never seems to preach, yet it certainly makes its points.

A HYMN TO HIM AND HER - MORE LOVE THAN WAR!
"Battle Hymn" is the story of a minister (Rock Hudson) who returns to train Korean soldiers to fight after he feels he has lost his calling. Of course he finds redemption and his true faith when he becomes involved with a group of Korean orphans and a young Korean/Indian woman that cares for them. Despite several brilliantly staged action sequences this film is not so much a war saga as it is a tale of introspection and finding courage in religion to carry on. The reason is simple; the film's director is Douglas Sirk - known for his soppy, sloppy and gushy melodramas that ooz treacle over substance, like "Imitation of Life" and "Written on the Wind". The blend of both adventure and drama is seamless. "Battle Hymn" is an intelligently-crafted and inspiring without being stoic or preachy.
THE TRANSFER: Overall the picture quality is nicely rendered but the ravages of time have not been kind in a few spots. Age related artifacts are present throughout - sometimes glaringly so. Black levels are often weak and fine detail is lost in the darkest scenes. Digital anomalies are not an issue for a generally smooth visual presentation. The audio is nicely presented - if somewhat dated.
EXTRAS: None.
BOTTOM LINE: "Battle Hymn" is finely wrought melodrama tinged with the prerequisite of combat that all war films have in common. The DVD is admirably realized but is not reference quality. Still, it's definitely worth a look.

this is the film to watch over the next few weeks.
A tribute to the essential benevolence of the US Army, and a justification of necessary warfare, 'Battle Hymn' was made with the full co-operation of the army (which allows for some spectacular airfights and picturesque bombings). It is introduced by an endearingly stolid miltary mandarin, General Earle Partridge of the US Fifth Air Force, posing against the eloquent priapic might of a grounded bomber. This is a propaganda film that shows the army as decent saviours of the world, protectors of the innocent; it displays the urgent need for heavy armaments and the engagement in warfare with totalitarian threats to that innocence.

The film is directed by Douglas Sirk, who has been for the last three decades the test case for the possibility within the monolithic global Hollywood industry of inserting a critical voice, of working within the system but producing films that go against the grain. Sirk's major legacy is a series of Universal melodramas from the 1950s, in which he took a despised, 'female', corny, conservative genre, and created the most devastating critiques of 50s America we have, with its mindless and mind-destroying conformism, its patriarchal repressions, its racism.

the films, being 'women's pictures', naturally focus on the domestic, on the interior lives of socially imprisoned characters. 'Battle Hymn', on the other hand, is a war film, male-dominated and set in the wide-open desert spaces of Korea. Nevertheless, Sirk finds a way to 'domesticate' this macho genre, with his feminised, camp soldiers; with his preponderance of cramped, interior shots.

there is a conscious opposition in this film that goes to the heart of the American 'problem' that would explode so traumatically in Vietnam. In the 1950s, when this film was made, America was led by a grounded military man, fetishised the family, and encouraged socially adhesive religious values. And yet Dean Hess, a vicar, a man of god, a family man, cannot live in this America. America is no longer fit for American men, primed by the Second World War, to live in. His marriage is sterile - only when he leaves does his wife become pregnant, and does he find the possibility of family in the shape of the teacher and Chu.

In an America so brightly optimistic and confident as Eisenhower's, any trauma cannot be spoken publicly. Any 'illness' must be taken outside and dealt with there. Hence the profusion of US military activity in the 20th century, a doomed attempt to atone for guilt and failure, which only results in the mass murder of foreigners.

'Battle Hymn' is quite a provocative film, with a hero and his sidekick called Herrmann and Hess, with two graphic bombings by the army of an orphanage and of fleeing refugees. The film is called 'Battle Hymn', and is an attempt to unite the conflicting US ideals of religion and militarism - Hess flails around wildly for the assurance that his murderous actions are not his fault, but part of God's will, sanctioning further brutalities. He is often ironically compared to Christ, when he is actually a mixture of the antiChrist and Midas, killing everything he touches. The only way he can save lives is to 'sacrifice' others.

'Battle Hymn' does not equate war with religion (a deus ex machina is epically ironic), but exposes the pathology of the army: the predominantly dull mise-en-scene matching the grey uniforms. American military imperialism is mirrored in the attempts to Americanise the Korean children, teaching them to eat 'candy', swallow Christianity and sing English. Any native rituals don't exist as examples of an alternative or older culture, but as theatrical expressions of Hess' moral progress.

the film also points to Sirk's great 'race' masterpiece of three years later, 'Imitation of life': in real America, segregation would have prevented Hess and Maples befriending one another. Here, they are made equal in the army, united by baby-killing and its justification by God.

Inspiring but Not Always factual
Once again, Hollywood has taken a true story, changed or omitted facts and passed it off as the real thing. Despite that, this is an inspiring and poignant movie and as another reviewer here said, this is the type of movie they don't make any more.

The stoic Rock Hudson plays Colonel Dean E. Hess, a real life WW II fighter pilot who comes to Korea to train the first ROKAF pilots in American aircraft and tactics. However, there are some glaring inconsistencies in this movie and what happened in real life to Dean Hess.

For one thing, Hess already had a degree in theology and was in graduate school when he became an aviation cadet in the Air Corps during WW II. He received his ordination and elected to return to the Air Force and make it his career postwar. It was not as the result of Korea itself or any deep spiritual problem. From what I read, when he bombed the orphanage or hospital in Germany during WW II, he did not have the problems portrayed in the movie.

The Anna Kashfi character, En Soon Whang was an older women in her 50s and not a beautiful, half-Korean - half Indian teacher. She was Korean and had lost two sons in WW II and in Korea. She had already helped start and maintain an orphanage. Then Major Hess helped out, along with many other Americans and the kiddy lift did happen. But not like in the movie.

This movie is inspiring because it does show the power of faith as well as Hess's value to a fellow pilot and long-term friend who he helps at the hour of his death. That was perhaps one of the most powerful parts of the movie, because his friend, a typical fighter pilot, has no foundation on which to stand. As he says to Hess, "I realize I was afraid to live and now, I don't know how to die." The minister in Hess the pilot finds his real calling, and pastors to his dying friend. He makes the transition from this life to the next easier for his friend and the other pilot is able to die peacefully. It is at that point that Dean Hess finds himself, by stepping outside himself.

I saw this movie for the first time more than 25 years ago on television and was very taken with it. It was at a time before I renewed my own faith. Dean Hess's pastoral counseling to his dying friend had a big impact on me because I had an inordinate fear of death and dying. His words had the effect of helping me conquer that fear and later, led me back to my own relationship with God. Perhaps that is the real (but hidden value) of this movie.

There is also another dimension to this movie that should be mentioned. The aerial sequences are extremely well done. Viewers who are fans of the North American P-51 Mustang will benefit from several scenes of combat flying that show the plane in its best light. In this part of the movie, Hudson manages to convey the competence of Hess as a leader and pilot. He is an excellent manager and teacher and his success training the ROKAF pilots is evident in later scenes.

Finally, one of the things the movie doesn't point out is that Colonel Dean E. Hess remained in the Air Force after the Korean War and not as a chaplain. He retired from active duty in 1971 as a full colonel and he spent the better part of his career as a fighter pilot. He was a man of God to be sure, but he was also a pilot and that is where he made his largest contributions to the service.

Paul Connors ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Ufa Goes on a Caribbean Cruise
Up until 1933, German studios retained a preeminent position both in European and in world film production. Pictures such as Josef Von Sternberg's The Blue Angel, Fritz Lang's M, and Leontine Sagan's Maedchen in Uniform were spectacular successes both critically and at the box office. After the rise to power of the Nazis, the story changed drastically. Apart from the possible exception of Leni Refienstahl's Triumph of the Will and Olympiade, it is difficult to come up with significant examples of German film art made during the Nazi period. But no one should imagine that the reconstituted movie industry-basically under the control of Goebbels-simply went over to making propaganda vehicles. As Jan-Christopher Horak explains in his useful liner notes to this excellent Kino Video DVD of Detlef Sierck's 1937 soap opera La Habanera, "Much more successful [than propaganda pieces like SA Mann Brand] were star studded historical epics, spy and adventure films, and comedies that transported Gesinnung (ideology) in the subtext."
Among the popular genres was the kitschy romantic melodrama, which had antecedents in pre-Nazi hits such as The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna (1929) and Dreaming Lips (1932). La Habanera, which has similarities to Pola Negri's intended comeback picture, Tango Notturno (1937), is very much in this vein, telling the story of a Swedish visitor to Puerto Rico, Astree Sternhjelm (Zarah Leander), who runs away from the ship that is supposed to take her home and unwisely marries a local aristocratic landowner, Don Pedro de Avila (Ferdinand Marian). After ten years of unhappy conjugal union, Astree only wants to flee the steamy tropics back to the snowy wastes of her homeland, taking her son along with her. At this point, an old flame of hers conveniently appears, a Swedish doctor who has come to the island to study the mysterious "Puerto Rico fever," a fatal epidemic whose existence local officials as well as Don Pedro want to cover up.
La Habanera may well be indebted to two older American films. The most evident parallel is with John Ford's adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's novel Arrowsmith (1931), whose last third depicts the protagonist's attempt to subdue an outbreak of the plague on a Caribbean isle. However, a less obvious but more tantalizing debt could be owing to Josef Von Sternberg's The Devil Is a Woman, apparent both in details of the mise en scene and in La Habanera's thinly veiled attempt to pass off Zarah Leander as a successor to Marlene Dietrich. Even the vainly proud Don Pedro, a rather improbable denizen of Puerto Rico in 1937, seems cut from the same cloth as Lionel Atwill's Don Pasqual in the earlier movie.
The Devil Is a Woman was based on a novel by Pierre Louys dating back to 1898, and the action of La Habanera-its up to date setting notwithstanding-clearly harks back to the same era. The film's saga of a woman who stakes all in the pursuit of passion as much as the scenes of picturesque natives at play in the fields and of colorful local customs like bullfighting are clichés of etiolated fin de siecle exoticism. Yet was not the current of aestheticism that plays so conspicuous a role in the films of Douglas Sirk-as the director was called after his emigration to the United States-itself a prominent feature of the same era? Moreover, it would not be hard to find evidences of aestheticism in the sense of a fascination with beautiful appearances and of a desire to create a work of purely artistic value in the earlier films of both Lang and F. W. Murnau, not to mention in the work of lesser directors like G.W. Pabst.
This association with the past may explain the virtual allergy to anything tainted with aestheticism on the part of émigré directors like Billy Wilder and Otto Preminger. Indeed, Walter Benjamin, probably thinking of the sinister example of Stefan George, characterized Nazism itself as "the aestheticization of politics." However, Sierck's aestheticism in La Habanera like that of the later Sirk in Written on the Wind represents an anachronistic Schlussakkord and not a plangent Fascist overture. But if Sierck/Sirk's conscientious dedication to aestheticism may have itself immunized him to seductions that figures of the caliber of Gottfried Benn or Emil Nolde found themselves unable to resist, it also marked a limit to his artistic development.
Here the comparison with The Devil Is a Woman, which still possesses some of the efficacy of a gesture of defiance against the hypocrisy and repression of bourgeois society, is revelatory. It, like the director's other collaborations with Dietrich, opens up an essentially tragic perspective. Life is an ongoing disaster for Von Sternberg just as it was for the author of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, but a movie director could not so easily fall back on Joyce's modernist faith in art. Even if the blind rush of life can be momentarily suspended in a moment of artistic vision, what happens when the artist preserves that moment in an intrinsically ephemeral medium? It can hardly have escaped Von Sternberg's attention that he was raising no "monument more lasting than brass" but one made of silver nitrate.
Nothing of Von Sternberg's ironic consciousness penetrates the closed world of La Habanera. At the end of the film, Astree-her Puerto Rican adventure hermetically closed off with the death of Don Pedro-departs the island for Sweden, just as the audience will soon leave the theater, having finished off its own night in the tropics courtesy of Ufa. In many of the scenes-for example, Leander's rendition of the title song-Sierck achieves a polish any director might well envy. Nonetheless, his triumph culminates in perfectly executing this wretched material, not in transcending it. The paradise that becomes a hell for the heroine was no doubt intended to be one of art for the spectator, but it remains a museum recreation of the Golden Age.

"BOLERO" [or "Death In Puerto Rico"]
RATHER a Fun romp of the 'forbidden senses' during the latter part of the 1930ties seen through the eyes of the stunning Zarah Leander as the love-torn fraulein defying covention and 'somewhat' eloping with the flasing-eyed, handsome foreigner, only to become somewhat a bird in a gilded cage ... with little son [in lederhosen?] intow.

BEAUTIFULLY restored this is a superb example of Doug Sirk's story telling artistry. The costumes are of special note - period perfect - 1936 - 37ish, and paintakingly executed [although in black and white - the fabrics are especially interesting....]

[So are the kitchy hairstyles for Miss Zarah - kind of a mix of Princess Leia meets Carmen - but all in all just perfect!]

A must for the serious student and collector.

Very early Douglas Sirk film
This odd pastiche of medical drama, political thriller and romantic melodrama is of curio value for two reasons. Fans of director Douglas Sirk (here still working in Germany under the name Detlef Sierck) will enjoy the chance to see him plying his trade 'way back during the Depression, and it's also an interesting example of pre-War, post-Weimar German cinema. Still, it's also quite cluttered and muddled in the plot department, and filmically its main strength is in the crisp black-and-white cinematography; the acting and the script are a little sketchy. Sirk is moderately successful trying to stir the romantic angle up into his usual hysterical fever pitch, but there isn't all that much to work with. The plot -- about an impulsive, romantic-minded Swedish gal who gives up her safe European home to live in the passionate, but ultimately grimy and dispiriting island nation of Puerto Rico -- can be seen as allegorical and topical, particularly with an awkward medical subplot showing science being distorted and bent to the will of political power, but it's still not very compelling or fun to watch. It's also hard to tell exactly where the filmmakers are coming down on the commentary about the relationship between developed nations and the Third World -- Latin America seems pretty uniformly looked down on by the "good guys" in this flick, and it certainly is funny how everyone on the island speaks German so fluently. Deutshe starlet Zarah Leander, who sings several stilted musical numbers, also doesn't do much for me; most of the acting seems hurried and unsubtle. I'd tag this as more of a treat for film scholars, rather than movie fans.

Good Douglas Sirk
"La Habanera" tells the story of a young girl from Sweden (though Zarah Leander always seems too sophisticated to be regarded as very young)who is travelling through the Puerto Rican islands with her stodgy aunt and falls in love with the country and an autocratic nobleman. The seduction of her longing for a new life far from her roots is embodied in the famous song, "Der Wind hat Mir ein Lied erzählt", which became a standard pop song in Nazi Germany and forever identified with Leander. She marries the nobleman and severs her ties with her country and family.
Obviously, this may only end disastrously since europeans can only truly be happy in aryan society where they belong-- according to the national socialistic doctrine at the time. Flash forward a few years and-sure enough-Leander is unhappily married and her nordic-looking young son is the only bright spot resulting from her rash decision to forsake her homeland. Her jealous husband keeps her on a short leash and she can only dream of Sweden and promise her son that they will one day go there.
When a young medical researcher from Sweden arrives on the island to investigate a fatal and insurgent fever, it would seem he might prove to be the salvation for all in one way or another. But is it too late?
This is the sort of melodrama that Sirk served better than almost anyone. There is always a melancholy and repressed desire to his best work and "La Habanera" is an early harbinger of that.There are plenty of kitschy and hokey moments. Zarah Leander outfitted in a mantilla and singing before guests at her formal dinner party is priceless. Still, even with the insidious european chauvinism, this film has a wistful and entertaining appeal. From the Weimar period through the Nazi regime, many films were being made in Germany to rival Hollywood (probably out of a sense of competition and national pride) and were being done with a great sense of cinema. "La Habanera" certainly stands as a good example of storytelling, fine craftmanship and star power. It is easy to see Zarah Leander as the German Cinema's answer to Greta Garbo. Her beauty and star quality were at their height at the time of "La Habanera" and Sirk exhibits them to good advantage. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

A Good Suspense Thriller
Done in a film-noir style, this movie is entertaining with a neat plot twist. Lucille Ball looks lovely and does a good job as the dancer who ecomes a police decoy to catch a killer. She has great chemistry with George Sanders (it was rumored they had a real-life affair). Boris Karloff also has a small part as a crazy fashion designer. If you're a Lucy fan, you'll want to own this movie.

PERSONAL COLUMN
A long over-looked suspence thriller by the once highly esteemed Douglas Sirk - his films of the fifties were better known - i.e. MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION & IMITATION OF LIFE, et. al. I just recently viewed this film last week and now realise my previous review didn't do it justice. Lucy gave a surprisingly good dramatic performance as an American taxi-dancer working in London. La Ball helps the police catch a madman who's out on the loose by posing as a decoy! Lucy co-stars with the elegantly sinister George Sanders and Charles Coburn is super in his offbeat role as Inspecter Temple. George Sanders (as a trivia note, Lucy and Sanders supposedly had a brief affair during this time) is exceedingly suave as Robert Fleming, Sandra's protective nightclub owner boyfriend. Ball, who had already appeared in dozens of films by this time, displays the inimitable spark which she would ignite into dynamite four years later doing I LOVE LUCY. The supporting cast is quite good : Boris Karloff, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and George Zucco. Our Lucyball even gets to sing! (alas, she is dubbed by Annette Warren).

"I was on guard against everyone except myself."
In the Douglas Sirk film "Lured" a series of young girls disappear after responding to personal ads. The killer taunts Scotland Yard by sending poems describing the girl and announcing the upcoming murder. The police are left with a handful of clues--the personal ads, the flaws of the typewriter used for the poems, and the fact that the killer has a penchant for Baudelaire.

Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball) plays an unflappable dance-hall girl whose friend is the latest victim of the killer. Inspector Temple (Charles Coburn) recruits Sandra to operate undercover through the personal ads. Sandra meets a lot of peculiar men through the ads, and soon she's juggling dates with bizarre dress designer Charles van Druten (Boris Karloff) and smooth playboy Robert Fleming (George Sanders).

This is an interesting role for Lucille Ball. Here she's worldly-wise and savvy to every pick-up line in the book. Inspector Temple sagaciously assesses Sandra's character and realizing she can handle men effectively, he adds her talent to his investigation. Lucille Ball fans will be pleasantly surprised by her role in "Lured," and Douglas Sirk fans should enjoy the film too. The characters are well defined, and the plot kept my attention throughout. It's in glorious black and white, and that complements the story and the setting--displacedhuman

Lucille Ball as a beautiful detec¿ive
"Lured" is a forgotten thriller of a movie, starring Lucille Ball as an American in London who helps Scotland Yard capture a serial killer. The subtle plotting is fast-paced and satisfying. Ball sparkles with wit and sophistication and makes the movie special.

You will be kept in suspense until the very end. If you know Ball only through her most famous manifestation as zany Lucy Ricardo, this movie will reveal her ability to fulfill a dramatic/romantic role. Although the real-life chemistry that sizzled between Ball and Desi Arnaz on the tv show is missing here, the supporting cast is splendid, and the city of London as it was in the 40s provides an interesting backdrop. Highly recommended.

not a typical Lucy movie
this is not your typical Lucy movie. but dont get me wrong it was still very good. its good to see that Lucille Ball can do something besdies comide. even though comdey is what she is remembered for. this movie is deffinitly recommened for a lucy fan or a murder mystry fan or both of that matter. it keeps you guessing until the very end. you think its one thing but they throw a cerve ball and its the total oppisite. i'm going to tell you what you can expect because then you wont get it. but i would recommend it. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

I can't believe people don't see what this movie is about!
Rock's guardian angel
tells him of this strange powerful lifestyle--LOVING OTHER PEOPLE AS YOURSELF! (hmm, I wonder Who said that?) He didn't shout or even say these words exactly, but Rock gets a full force blast of its power on his first attempt at helping his fellow man, culminating in the catastrophic blinding of Jane. This is his epiphany, his salvation, as he follows the subliminal path of Christ TO THE MAGNIFICENT ENDING!

I can't believe people don't see what this movie is about!
I saw this movie on TCM, coming in where Rock's guardian angel
tells him of this strange powerful lifestyle--LOVING OTHER PEOPLE AS YOURSELF! (hmm, I wonder Who said that?) He didn't shout or even say these words exactly, but Rock gets a full force blast of its power on his first attempt at helping his fellow man, culminating in the catastrophic blinding of Jane. This is his epiphany, his salvation, as he follows the path of Christ (again, not mentioned in the movie), but it SCREAMS IT OUT ON TO THE MAGNIFICENT ENDING!

Not Clear Enough
I've seen this movie on television many times. I'm a dyed in the wool Rock Hudson fan, so naturally I loved this movie. However, I've also read the book, and I don't think the movie made it clear what the story was really about. It focused on the love story--naturally--it's Hollywood! But the real story is a spiritual one, and I wish that could have been brought out more. Although the DVD isn't out yet, I sincerely hope the studio chooses to put it out--I'll add it to my collection

the color is almost hallucinatory
I liked this movie for its color which evokes the colors of Indian dieties such as Hanuman. Trippy acid colors.

The story is over the top, but enjoyable like Johnny Guitar.

Why You Should Never Refuse a Dinner Invitation
This movie proves that it never pays to refuse dinner invites from dashing men, especially when a refusal of lunch with them earlier has sharpened their persistance.

This movie was actually not so bad. Even though it was very soap-operaish. I did keep wondering when Bob Merrick was going to accidentally paralyse the daughter.

I liked seeing Agnes Moorehead in a non-snappish role, and Jane Wyman did fine as a blind person, although I felt both of them gave more in their roles in "Johnny Belinda".

This wasn't a picture I could really take seriously - it was a bit sappy, very hokey, and so forth - but enjoyable for laughs and didn't drag for a minute. I recommend it for fun, but for something more serious do the Johnny Belinda thing. ... Read more