Imitation of Life

The first (and more faithful) screen adaptation of Fannie Hurst's eponymous novel, with Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers as the two mothers whose respective hearts are broken by their daughters. After the two successfully market the African-American Beavers' prize-winning pancakes, their material success can't keep Beavers' lighter-skinned daughter from rejecting her in favor of "passing" in white society. At the same time, Colbert and her daughter fall in love with the same man, and Colbert is forced to reject him. (1934, 111 minutes)