The outdoor scenes are lavish but authentic, due to the larger budget of the film and the desire not to draw as much attention away from the more complex and socially important plot. Visual realism, however, was never a goal of melodrama. In fact, melodramas had a variety of visual techniques designed to remind the audience that they weren't real. These conventions were used to handle social concerns, like the growing fear of technology seen in Magnificent Obsession . At one point, a character uses a lamp as a metaphor for Bob Merrick himself, symbolizing the fear of people being replaced by machines.
Technology is seen as evil and a result of wealth and materialism.
This is true, but the film points out that just like fancy cars and speedboats were only available to the wealthy, so was the life-saving technology only available to the rich Bob Merrick. In Imitation of Life made five years later, the culture had grown more accustomed to technology as a part of everyone's lives and people were not as fearful. In that film the dangers of wealth were expressed through lush and overpowering interiors, e.g. Susie's plush pink bedroom and the expensive objects crammed into Lora's living room. Women's roles reflected their advancements in employment and independence. On the other hand, the superficial final message of these films, a more dangerous one, is not that women can't live independently of men, but that above all they don't want to.