Sarah Jane....why did I keep thinking that part was MADE for.....
Natalie Wood?
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.........Natalie Wood played many troubled characters early in movies like "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Splendor in the Grass" early in her career. More important she played a biracial character, passing for white, in "Kings Go Forth".
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
I thought the actress reminded me of Natalie Wood. Just got done watching the movie, and whenever Sarah Jane cried at her mother's funeral it reminded me og when Natalie Wood broke down after Tony was shot in WEST SIDE STORY. Their sobs cracked the same way.
shareSusan Kohner has always reminded me of Natalie Wood.
It i my unfounded suspicion as well, that she might have been
considered for the role of Sarah Jane before the casting of
Susan Kohner.
"OOO...I'M GON' TELL MAMA!"
I have a theory Hollywood agents and studio heads, during the thirties threw fifties, discouraged their actors from playing a passing black character, more then once, because the public might start perceiving them as non white.
Myna Loy, who was of Irish ancestry but often played "yellow face" Asian roles early in her career was confronted with speculation about her ancestry when she appeared in the "Thin Man" series of films. Remember this was during a time when the Motion Picture Code specifically prohibited (real) interracial couples in movies.
Ava Gardner, who played the Julia, in "Show Boat" (1951) turned down the part of another passing character, Amantha Star, in "Band of Angles" (1957); again possibly because it might lead to type casting as well as adding to speculation about her real life background.
Natalie Wood had already played a Tragic Mulatto in "Kings Go Forth". It is very possible her manager or agent discouraged her from taking the part of Sarah Jane because it might have had a negative effect on how she would be cast in the future.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
I saw this movie when I was really young and couldn't remember anything about it other than the bare skeleton of the plot... I was wasting my time for 10 years combing through Natalie Woods movies trying to find it, I think it was because I felt the same way, like this role was really meant for her.
shareSusan Kohner was excellent in this role. I thought of no one else for it.
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Susan Kohner looks so much like Natalie Wood that I spent years going around saying that 'Imitation Of Life' was my favourite Natalie Wood movie and one of her finest performances lol. Striking similarity. They look like sisters.
I wouldnt go as far as to say that the part was "MADE" for Natalie Wood. She would have been amazing (obviously) but Susan Kohner was fantastic in the part. Her resemblance to Natalie (one of Hollywoods hottest stars at the time) probably didnt do her any harm when they were casting the part.
She _was_ great in the part, but is it just me that found her dancing awful? When she's dancing in the bedroom, she's fine, but those arm movements in the club when she's singing the solo,were overdone. And her rhythm was totally off. Or was that on purpose because she hated what she was doing deep inside? She looked so bored. And she comes offstage and the guy says " You were great" Ummm, no. She wasn't. Was it supposed to be that bad?
shareIn the context of the movie Sarah Jane wasn't really a professionally trained dancer or singer. She didn't really have any interest in doing either until she was worked over by Frankie because she was black and decided that she wanted to pass for white full time. For what ever reason she decided show business was the way out even though her experience was limited to practicing in her room.
The only work she could get was as a dancer and singer in Harry's Club where her looks, not her talent, got her the job. She realized singing "Empty Arms" and dancing for a bunch of drunk dudes many times a night wasn't what she wanted to do with her life. Of course she was bored. She also may have had feeling about turning her back on her mother and what she was.
Susan Kohner had appeared in a number of TV shows and movies before playing Sarah Jane in "Imitation of Life" but none of the parts called for singing or dancing. Her voice in the Harry's Club scene was dubbed but she did her own dancing of course. Like Sarah Jane she was winging it.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
Good point.
shareCould be the actress was directed to dance so horribly. I watched this last night and, yes, she danced like a former paraplegic in rehab learning how to use her legs again.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.