This is not a great movie but it's a very good one. Its racial views are somewhat of its time but it is also very forward-looking. Little need be said of the remake other than that the original is superior in every way. Most interesting, though, is that the daughter passing for white is played here by a black actress, whereas in the version almost three decades later the character is taken by a Caucasian.
In many ways, the truly heartbreaking story of Louise Beavers's character's love for her conflicted daughter is like something from a "race picture." It has a feel of authenticity.
Ms. Beavers looks very pretty, though she is heavy. It's a shame that in her big scenes, the camera is focused on Claudette Colbert or Rochelle Hudson -- the white mother and daughter in the considerably less interesting intertwining plot.
Colbert looks good, though this was a little before she had hit on her trademark look with bangs. The scenes in which Beavers massages her feet seem a little risqué, intentionally or otherwise.
My mother, who was a child when this came out, used to talk about seeing this several times and crying each time.
And speaking of children, the opening scenes in which the daughter is an ostensibly adorable child and Colbert addressees her comments about her wanting her "quack-quack," it's hard not to think of the scene in "Midnight," a later and different but far better movie, in which Colbert speaks on the phone to her nonexistent little daughter's illness, with John Barrymore speaking in falsetto about a hangover at the other end.
Frerdi Washington, as Beavers's daughter who is passing for white, is lovely. She has a beautiful mezzo voice and acts this melodrama as if it were O'Neill.
Colbert's daughter's crush on Warren William seems uninteresting and possibly -- I have not read and never will read the original -- that aspect of the plot was trimmed or censored.
In many ways, the truly heartbreaking story of Louise Beavers's character's love for her conflicted daughter is like something from a "race picture." It has a feel of authenticity.
Ms. Beavers looks very pretty, though she is heavy. It's a shame that in her big scenes, the camera is focused on Claudette Colbert or Rochelle Hudson -- the white mother and daughter in the considerably less interesting intertwining plot.
Colbert looks good, though this was a little before she had hit on her trademark look with bangs. The scenes in which Beavers massages her feet seem a little risqué, intentionally or otherwise.
My mother, who was a child when this came out, used to talk about seeing this several times and crying each time.
And speaking of children, the opening scenes in which the daughter is an ostensibly adorable child and Colbert addressees her comments about her wanting her "quack-quack," it's hard not to think of the scene in "Midnight," a later and different but far better movie, in which Colbert speaks on the phone to her nonexistent little daughter's illness, with John Barrymore speaking in falsetto about a hangover at the other end.
Frerdi Washington, as Beavers's daughter who is passing for white, is lovely. She has a beautiful mezzo voice and acts this melodrama as if it were O'Neill.
Colbert's daughter's crush on Warren William seems uninteresting and possibly -- I have not read and never will read the original -- that aspect of the plot was trimmed or censored.