IMITATION OF LIFE

(Stahl v​ersion)

(1934, John M. Stahl) Penniless widow Claudette Colbert amasses a financial empire out of faithful servant Louise Beavers’ pancake recipe. With Warren William and, as Beavers’ “tragic mulatto” daughter, Fredi Washington. Approx. 109 min. 35mm.
3:30, 7:35

"Wonderfully warm and witty in its observation of two women (one black, one white) who not only crash the race barriers in their friendship but successfully go it alone in a man's world... Makes fascinating comparison with Sirk's remake." 
– TIme Out (London)

MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION

(Stahl version)

(1935, John M. Stahl) Playboy Robert Taylor, indirectly responsible for widowing and then blinding Irene Dunne, falls in love, turns over a new leaf, wins the Nobel Prize, and then...  Approx. 101 min. 35mm.
1:30, 5:35

"Superb. Like Sirk, Stahl possessed a sense of composition that bordered on the sublime."
– TIme Out (London)