The screenplay by William Hurlbut, based on Fannie Hurst's 1933 novel of the same name, was augmented by eight additional uncredited writers, including Preston Sturges and Finley Peter Dunne.

In 2005, Imitation of Life was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Widow Bea Pullman is continuing her husband’s business, selling cans of maple syrup door-to-door, and making little money.

Then eighteen-year-old Jessie comes home on college vacation, and during the five days it takes for Bea and Delilah to find Peola, she falls in love with Stephen.

[b][c][6] Her coffin is carried from the church to the hearse through the saber arch of an honor guard, and a remorseful, sobbing Peola rushes to embrace it, begging her dead mother to forgive her.

Cast notes: Fannie Hurst's inspiration in writing her novel Imitation of Life was a road trip to Canada she took with her friend, the African-American short-story writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston.

[citation needed] Universal had difficulty receiving approval from the censors at the Hays Office for the original script they submitted for Imitation of Life.

[10] Joseph Breen objected to the elements of miscegenation in the story, which "not only violates the Production Code but is very dangerous from the standpoint both of industry and public policy.

"[9] He rejected the project, writing, "Hurst's novel dealing with a partly colored girl who wants to pass as white violates the clause covering miscegenation in spirit, if not in fact!

"[11] The Production Code Administration's (PCA) censors had difficulty in "negotiating how boundaries of racial difference should be cinematically constructed to be seen, and believed, on the screen.

"[11] They also objected to some language in the script, and a scene where a young black man is nearly lynched for approaching a white woman who he believed had invited his attention.

A few blocks from the gaiety of the famous boardwalk, permanent citizens of the town lived and worked and reared families just like people in less glamorous cities.

[13]The scene in which Elmer approaches Bea with the idea to sell Delilah's pancake mix to retail customers refers to a legend about the origins of Coca-Cola's success.

[14] TCM's Jeff Stafford observes that this film "was ahead of its time in presenting single women as successful entrepreneurs in a business traditionally run by men.

Some scenes seem to mock Delilah, because of her supposed ignorance about her financial interests and her willingness to be in a support role, but the two women have built an independent business together.

According to Jean-Pierre Coursodon in his essay on John M. Stahl in American Directors, Fredi Washington ... reportedly received a great deal of mail from young blacks thanking her for having expressed their intimate concerns and contradictions so well.

[16] Imitation of Life was nominated for three Academy Awards – Best Picture, Best Assistant Director for Scott R. Beal, and Best Sound, Recording for Theodore Soderberg.

The website’s consensus reads: "Imitation of Life isn't always subtle, but even as it tugs at the heartstrings, this socially conscious melodrama effectively explores Jim Crow-era racial taboos.

"[20] The Literary Digest review at the time noted that "In Imitation of Life, the screen is extremely careful to avoid its most dramatic theme, obviously because it fears its social implications. ...

They [the producers] appear to be fond of her mother, because she is of the meek type of old-fashioned Negro that, as they say, 'knows his place', but the daughter is too bitter and lacking in resignation for them.