YoPec

This is a charming film made back when films could be made just to be charming. It is the story of a big city couple that move to a small town to run the little weekly paper there. They find that their big city way of thinking can get them in trouble with small town minds and mores! I especially liked their photo file; when they wanted a picture of an arrogant citizen the only one on file was of him as a baby-naked on a bearskin rug! This film is another that I would love to see restored and made available on DVD.

I saw this film when I was a kid and loved it! What I wouldn't give to have it restored and on DVD! The story is great, the acting snappy and the comedy superb! A rich old man dies and leaves all his money to his pet dog, Rex. The old gent's lovely young secretary is charged with the care of the dog and is happy to do so. But the dog gets poisoned and the secretary is arrested. Meanwhile, Rex arrives at the judgment seat for animals. Good animals go to Animal Heaven. Bad animals must return to Earth to live as a human! (Called `humals'). Rex has a ticket to animal heaven but he wants to go back to Earth to clear the secretary, whom he is sure did not murder him. He is given three days as a humal to solve the crime and given an assistant, a racehorse named Golden Harvest. The duo return to Earth as Rex Shepard, PI and his assistant, Goldie Harvest. It's all the more humorous as Rex munches on dog biscuits and Goldie has a nose bag for a purse, tiny horseshoes on the soles of her shoes and can outrun a bus! They solve the crime, but Rex falls in love with the pretty young secretary and now must decide if he should go to animal heaven or stay on earth as a humal! Goldie helps him decide but pointing out the girl's father is a humal-part Scottish terrier (you can see the resemblance!) A great film!

I hope this film will be restored and put on DVD soon. It is a classic and a worthy addition to the film buff's library. Imitation of Life is not a perfect film, but considering that it was made in 1934, it deserves recognition. The film tells of two women, one white one black. Each has a daughter. Single moms and interracial friendships in 1934? Yes, it is true that the black woman, Delilah is subservient, but this is true to the times and she should not be criticized for it. Both these woman want a better life for their daughters and work together to do so. It is a sad, but realistic fact that neither daughter is happy with the better life. Delilah's daughter is very light-skinned and wants to pass for white for she knows in this era that the only opportunities are for whites. The later version starring Lana Turner is a poor substitute for this one. Lana tends to over act and the friendship between the two women is severely downplayed. It is true that in this film the camera seems to pause on the actors' faces over long, but this I think is a holdover from the silent film era when acting had to be done by facial expression instead of voice.

While this film is flawed it is a good film for young people in that it shows the changes made in our society both for single moms and for blacks.