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Letter from Here (Free subscription) | 04/21/2008
... an admittedly crass attempt to ape Back Street itself, Fanny Hurst's best-selling novel, before John M. Stahl's more elaborate version at Universal hit the screen. Capra won the race even though production on Forbidden was suspended for six months while Stanwyck and Columbia boss Harry Cohn settled a salary dispute. One of the first stars created in the talkie era, Stanwyck now looks...
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DVDVerdict (Free subscription) | 03/03/2008
Providing a fascinating comparison of two classic melodramas based on the same novel, Imitation of Life: Two-Movie Special Edition showcases the masterful melodrama of directors John M. Stahl (1934 version) and Douglas Sirk (1959 version). The set also allows helps viewers to critically consider the troubling racial themes so central to each film and the progress that was (and wasn't)...
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Justine Larbalestier (Free subscription) | 02/05/2008
... in metaphysical formalism by Sirk’s finely textured and densely layered images. Less well known is John M. Stahl's first film version (1934) of this Fannie Hurst novel about the complex bond between an enterprising white businesswoman (Claudette Colbert) and the black woman (Louise Beavers) who becomes her housekeeper and supplies the secret formula for pancakes that becomes the basis...
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The latest from newcritics (Free subscription) | 09/21/2007
... in the brightest Technicolor”—a description some would apply to suburbia. And it was directed by John M. Stahl, who directed the original Imitation of Life in 1934 with Claudette Colbert and the original Magnificent Obsession in 1935 with Irene Dunne. Thus Stahl begat Sirk who begat Haynes—-with all those permutations of Heaven titles between them. Matthew Weiner certainly...
