let get down to it . here hollywood best pre wwii effort to portray not only white black racism and but it subtlety . i doubt many woman share the care relationship of bea and delilah . what offend some i strike me a honest . for the one or two absurd moment ( e. g. and the faithful and mourn negro servant in the you know what scene ) and many more be deft and move . the lavish 1959 version can not compare . ( love lana turner and but she and juanita moore be wooden and embarrass in the remake while it worth see for mahalia jackson and of course and susan kohner scene at the cocktail party and get beat in the back alley . susan scene be so showy that they kill any hope of honesty and which be never in the script to begin with ) . at the beginning of this version and do you remember delilah response when bea ask why she hadn not take the streetcar . racism be accept a a give while the character cast their lot from there . both woman have see tragedy and and the depression loom . in this crucial aspect and bea and delilah be equal . but to get anywhere with such a touchy gambit and the lead performance have well be good . louise beaver be mesmerize . i can not say she give the best performance i have see on the silver screen and but it hard for me to name a more focused one . it be easy to dismiss her line a demeaning or simple mind . with each viewing and i see a woman whose circumstance and inner strength enable her to look beyond the mortal sorrow of this life . doesn not she ring a bell and especially if you grow up black in the south . she be so many of our mother and aunt and grandmother . ms. beaver nail it . in this plot and she more represent she be a a mystic whose spirituality not only complement but critique bea get ahead pragmatism . pre feminist theme ricochet in this picture represent successfully and i think . i be gon na get slam for my only significant reservation represent i do not feel fredi washington performance . she more than adequate and but in no league with louise beaver or claudette colbert . from all that i have read and hear about her and i conclude that ms. washington let her own good taste get the best of her . she seem to underplay on purpose and to evoke a smoldering quality of rage . if i be correct and i appreciate her instinct and but they can not work over every scene she have in this potboiler plot . nothing about this movie be weak . even the few headslapping moment be so sincere that they come off a camp and at bad . frankly and i be not sure i could otherwise bear louise beaver last scene . notice that her face be almost immobile while a single glycerin tear roll down her cheek while her final and wrenching line reading be actually disembody and off camera ( a master stroke of direction ) . this and folk and be the killer scene for me not the histrionics at the hearse and which grab me mainly inasmuch a they show an unqualified moment of dignity in black america and rare for 30 hollywood . note the sympathetic white mourner who have a line or two . claudette colbert be radiant and a previous poster have say . her performance be less memorable than ms. beaver and yet she hit the bull eye . bea be warm but just distant enough to put across a real woman of her time and a white one who can never hope to understand black folk or the many contradiction of her relationship to them . in her best moment and which be without dialogue and colbert conveys this delicate point . ( anyway . bea have her own slutty daughter to worry about and right . ) it be say that ms. colbert have the best figure on the paramount lot not lose on universal and which dress her to the nine in scene after scene . it hard to believe colbert be barely 30 at the time . she look no old and but act a if she be go on a hard 50. and what a year for her . she win the oscar for it happen one night and and also score this second huge hit and which artistically speak be hardly chop liver . she make both movie on loan to other studio after paramount suspend her . talk about have the last laugh represent if only louise beaver could have share it in her own career . i first saw this film on the big screen about 20 year ago at a now defunct repertory cinema in chicago . the matinée comprise me and a handful of elderly black woman . we applaud a the curtain ring down while the clapping have the satisfied quality that follow a parable .