Melodrama for Mother's Day

A key scene and nice mash-up both drawn from Douglas Sirk’s great 1959 Technicolor version — a cannily updated remake, as it happens — of a racially charged classic-era soaper, “Imitation of Life.” I was bummed to miss this film, and a very rare appearance by Juanita Moore who plays the maternal paragon, Annie Johnson — at the TCM Classic Film Festival a couple of weeks back.

Admit, that got to you just a little. That’s beautiful Susan Kohner there, passing for “passing” as it were, as the classic “tragic mulatto.” Somewhat politically incorrect casting aside, she was pretty amazing in Sirk’s film.Anyhow, here’s a pretty cool mom-centric mash-up from the film — and this one doesn’t mess with the aspect ratio and it features a compelling bit of music from girl-group greats, the Shangra-las.