Synopsis
A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter. The two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.
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Cast
- Claudette ColbertBeatrice 'Bea' Pullman
- Warren WilliamStephen 'Steve' Archer
- Rochelle HudsonJessie Pullman, Age 18
- Ned SparksElmer Smith
- Louise BeaversDelilah Johnson
- Fredi WashingtonPeola Johnson, Age 19
- Juanita QuigleyBaby Jessie Pullman, Age 3
- Alan HaleMartin the Furniture Man
- Henry ArmettaThe Painter
- Wyndham StandingBeatrice's Butler Jarvis
Recommendations
- 80
Time Out
More character study than polemic, 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, Stahl's version of Fannie Hurst's novel makes fascinating comparison with Sirk's remake. - 80
The New Yorker
Classic, compulsively watchable rags-to-riches-and-heartbreak weeper, from a novel by Fannie Hurst. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
Highly sentimental social soaper, subtly crafted by director Stahl. - 70
Chicago Reader
Douglas Sirk's famous 1959 remake was pure metaphysics; this version emphasizes the social content, particularly in its Depression-era attention to class nuances. - 70
Time
Because of the authority with which it is acted and the skill with which Director John Stahl has built up individual episodes, the picture remains an efficient tearjerker, outspoken in its praise of motherlove. - 70
Variety
John M. Stahl directs this kind of thing very well. He keeps the Fannie Hurst ‘success story’ brand of snobbishness under control and the film flows with mounting interest, if at moments a trifle slowly. - 70
The New York Times
A gripping and powerful if slightly diffuse drama which discussed the mother love question, the race question, the business woman question, the mother and daughter question and the love renunciation question.
