fannie hurst tear jerk 1933 novel about the sacrifice mother make for their daughter spawn two popular movie separate by a quarter century of glacially change social attitude a highly regarded 1934 version that remain faithful to the book narrative and an elaborate 1959 remake which change certain plot detail to service german bear filmmaker douglas sirk heavily baroque style of film making . both film maintain the same basic time span storyline of two widow one be a white woman who find professional success but at a price that cause an unintended estrangement from her daughter and while the other be a black woman whose light skin daughter cause nothing but grief for all concern . direct by john m. stahl and the black and white 1934 version focus on beatrice pullman and a downtrodden white woman who bond with delilah johnson and a cheery black woman and and open up a waffle shop to support their daughter jessie and peola respectively . their business becomes such a success that it get franchise into a chain of coffee shop that market delilah waffle recipe and then turn into a major business venture produce the waffle mix en masse . meantime and delilah stay devote to beatrice a her maid ( despite earn twenty percent of the company profit ) and and together they raise their daughter . beatrice eventually find love with stephen archer and an ichthyologist for whom jessie develop a crush . far more seriously and peola run away to escape her black identity and put delilah into an emotional tailspin . in the same year she make it happen one night and demille cleopatra and claudette colbert show her trademark natural élan which allow her to be the emotional gravitational force her character beatrice require her to be . louise beaver and who make a career of play sunny face maid and get her one shot at a first class role and play delilah with great poignancy despite the inherent racism behind the conception of the role . the rest of the cast be adequate and though the real standout be fredi washington and a seminal black actress who portray peola with sear resentment and deepen regret .