Mildred Pierce

Joan Crawford is playing a most troubled lady, and giving a sincere and generally effective characterization of same, in the new drama of James M. Cain origin, "Mildred Pierce," which the Warners presented yesterday at the Strand. But somehow all Miss Crawford's gallant suffering, even with the fillip of murder-mystery that was added to the novel by its screen adaptors, left this spectator strangely unmoved. For it does not seem reasonable that a level-headed person like Mildred Pierce, who builds a fabulously successful chain of restaurants on practically nothing, could be so completely dominated by a selfish and grasping daughter, who spells trouble in capital letters.

This Veda Pierce, for whom poor Mildred works the polish off her nails and makes a loveless second marriage with a socially prominent parasite just to give the girl "background," is as mean and tricky as they come. Yet we couldn't help feeling that if Mildred had put Veda over her knee twice a day at the age of fourteen she might have grown up rather differently. But no, Mildred showers the brat with kindness, suffers the humiliation of seeing Veda make love to the worthless stepfather and then, in a final burst of nobility—and/or mother love—tries to cover up her daughter's shame.

If you can accept this rather demanding premise — and there were not a few ladies in the Strand who were frequently blotting tears with evident enjoyment — then "Mildred Pierce" is just the tortured drama you've been waiting for. Michael Curtiz has directed the story with cunning dramatic artifice for most of its 111 minutes, but has let the character of Veda get out of hand. Ann Blyth interprets Veda with such devastating emphasis that she is quite incredible on the whole. She is an even less convincing protagonist on the screen than she was in Mr. Cain's original chronicle of the tribulations of Mildred Pierce.

It is a tribute to Miss Crawford's art that Mildred, who is deserted by her first husband and suffers the death of her younger daughter in the home of her wayward spouse's inamorata, comes through the ordeal as well as she does. Jack Carson is noisy as a brassy friend whose constant pawing of Mildred is not in the best of taste, Bruce Bennett and Zachary Scott are the first and second husbands, respectively, the one being mostly sulky, the other offensively rougish. Eve Arden is her customary hardboiled self, and that's quite alright with us.

"Mildred Pierce" lacks the driving force of stimulating drama, and its denouement hardly comes as a surprise, but it is cut from a pattern that has been hugely successful in the past and it probably will be this time too.

One of the best-made Hollywood movies ever, Mildred Pierce transcends the genre of the high-powered soap opera (tinged with a definite noir flavor) by encapsulating a number of vital American themes, some of them years before the nation knew they existed. The desperate search for identity and property as the key to happiness, and maternal love misplaced on a grand scale, are the twin engines of this lightning-fast entertainment machine. A holy monster of Hollywood who wouldn't stay dead, Joan Crawford made this show a shattering return to the top, in a role she'd more or less repeat throughout the rest of her career. Complete review/essay.

Everything about Mildred Pierce is first-rate, from stellar production values to Curtiz's marvelously paced direction, which refuses to allow sentiment to rule the story. The MacDougall script, adapted from Cain's terse novel, is adult and literate, with plenty of sharp dialogue. The Curtiz string-pulling is greatly aided by Grot's imposing sets, Haller's moody photography and Steiner's haunting score. Bravely cresting the waves of disaster is a mature Crawford in a real tour de force, defying the industry to write her off as washed up. She's matched every slap of the way by Blyth, here giving the performance of her career. ...

4/16/07 New Yorker art accompanying Denby's review. By Robert Risko. David Denby in the New Yorker (4/16/07)

In the early forties, Joan Crawford left the suffocating glamour of M-G-M and entered the noirish shadows of Warner Bros. Her second film there was the startling “Mildred Pierce,” from the James M. Cain novel, which is perhaps more candid about money and social status than any American movie of the period. ...Crawford is the poor divorcée Mildred, who works as a waitress, then starts a restaurant, then a chain of restaurants, and finally marries the quintessential heel, Zachary Scott, all to satisfy the snobbish demands of her daughter, Ann Blyth, who resents her mother’s common origins. Crawford’s performance is convincing and intelligent, and the bitterness feels genuine (Crawford herself was a wrong-side-of-the-tracks girl who struggled for respect). Like other good forties movies, “Mildred Pierce” starts with a murder and then works back to the roots of the crime. The director, Michael Curtiz, keeps the palette dark and rich and the psychological undertones resonant.

Rating:

of 5 Of the numerous movies produced in the "film noir" style during the 1940s, only three of them stand out in my mind: Laura starring Gene Tierney, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers starring Barbara Stanwyck, and Mildred Pierce starring Joan Crawford.

"Mildred," based on a novel by James M. Cain, is easily the best of the three, holding up as a classic by which all other films of this genre are compared to. As a definitive film of its type, it defines an era. As a comeback vehicle for Crawford following her two year hiatus from movies, it permanently established her screen persona and subsequently influenced every other role Miss Crawford played for the remainder of her long career. After twenty years of shopgirl, showgirl, and society girl roles, Mildred Pierce allowed Crawford to dramatically switch gears and portray a common, lower-middle-class housewife saddled with two kids, a mortgage, and a husband who prefers the company of the flashy divorcee up the street. Joan portrays Mildred's drab existence in an unpretentious, world-weary manner, which perfectly reflects the unhappiness of her marriage and her life. After Mildred kicks her philandering husband out, she quickly realizes she's got bills to pay and that she needs to make some changes in her life. After finding a job as a waitress, Mildred begins to blossom and discovers previously untapped strengths and talents that she wasn't aware she possessed. With each new success, she comes more and more alive, culminating in a successful chain of restaurants where her former employer becomes her employee, and where she finds

love with a dashing, albeit oily, society heir. Playing opposite Joan are many talented actors and actresses: Eve Arden as the amusing, hard as nails Ida, Jack Carson as the lecherous Wally Fay, Zachary Scott as the morally (and fiscally) bankrupt Monty Beragon, Jo Ann Marlowe as spunky Kay Pierce, Butterfly McQueen as scatterbrained Lottie, and (most importantly) Ann Blyth as Mildred's spoiled, conniving daughter Veda. Much of the movie's plot concerns the relationship between Mildred and Veda, and Miss Blyth adds just the right note of willful spite and malice to her role, playing beautifully opposite Joan as they spar and jab at one another like every good love-hate relationship demands. Mildred isn't perfect, but everything she does she does out of love. Veda, on the other hand, is an unmitigated little bitch who only cares about money and social stature. Her mother

works hard to give Veda everything she desires, but Veda remains blatantly disdainful of Mildred, thoroughly embarrassed that her mother makes money running a chain of greasy spoons. The acting between Crawford and Blythe is electric, and they compliment each other perfectly. Joan's costumes in this movie firmly established her as an icon of the twentieth century. Her style in this film is the one she held on to for the rest of her life, rarely deviating from the broad padded shoulders, bold jewelry, upswept hair, heavy eyebrows, and ankle strapped "fuck me" shoes that she wore as Mildred Pierce. The look virtually defined the 1940s, and the tailored, mannish "power-suits" worked extremely well both

for the character and for Joan. With a top-rate cast, an excellent script by Ranald MacDougall, visually riveting cinematography by Ernest Haller, a haunting score by Max Steiner, and strong direction by Michael Curtiz, Mildred Pierce succeeds as a highly entertaining movie that one can watch repeatedly and never grow tired of. Joan Crawford outdid herself as Mildred, and she wholeheartedly deserved her Academy Award. Memorable lines: Veda: "You think just because you made a little money you can get a new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady. But you can't. Because you'll never be anything but a common frump whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing." Mildred: "Veda, I think I'm really seeing you for the first time in my life and you're cheap and horrible." Veda: "With this money I can get away from you. From you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack with its cheap furniture. And this town and its dollar days, and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls." Mildred: "Get out, Veda...get out before I kill you!" Ida: "Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young." Ida: "When men get around me, they get allergic to wedding rings." Wally Fay to Ida: "I hate all women. Thank goodness you're not one."