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Summary: The Sacrifices a Mother Makes
Review: This was quite a sensational movie for its time involving themes of infidelity and incest. Joan Crawford won an Oscar for her tormented performance in this film. Crawford rises from being a waitress to becoming a successful businesswoman. As she enters a world of affluence including a glamorous beach house, she finds herself in competition with her daughter for the affections of her scoundrel husband. The lovely Ann Blyth and foppish Zachary Scott play the semi-incestuous duo. Michael Curtiz turns in a solid directorial drama. George James Hopkins designed some memorable sets for the beach house and Crawford's business. Composer Max Steiner turns in another of his wonderful scores. Steiner is the composer who gave us that familiar Warner Brother's sound. It is interesting how Joan Crawford went on to make cult classics like "JOHNNY GUITAR," "WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?" and "BERSERK." "Mildred Pierce" is one of those great classics we don't see enough of.
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Summary: An honest review
Review: My god, people! I hear people saying stuff like, "Joan didn't deserve the Oscar", "It wasn't great acting", etc. Let me say that anybody who subscribes to that belief needs to look a little bit closer! This is the performance of the century. You may not like this woman because of Mommie Dearest (which nobody knows is true), but that doesn't mean you can shamelessly criticize a legendary actress's performance, of which recieved an Academy Award! Watch it again! But this time, don't watch the movie. Watch Joan! Can you honestly imagine this film being a success with anybody else? Bette Davis would have put it to shame, as much as I adore her. And the same goes for Barbara Stanwyck, Katharine Hepburn, etc. This is Joan. And if you don't like her, don't watch it! And if you like the movie, then you should like Joan, because this is the definition of Joan Crawford. She was beautiful and talented. She represented all the glamour and grandeur of the past, as does this film, Mildred Pierce. And if you can't face the reality; that people and films were VERY grand in the 1940s, then no wonder you dislike Joan Crawford.
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Summary: All that...and it's a hoot too!
Review: The comments made by Stephen Jones below are pretty much on target. This is an interesting mix of "women's film" and "film noir." No easy task since the genres are so opposite in many ways. And no, it's not always a successful mix. But what makes it ultimately work is the same kind of "dissonance" also found in Curtiz' "Casablanca,"--the grim world of noir vs.the womanly concerns of romance and family.Joan Crawford is, well, Joan Crawford. Her steeliness belies the purported warmth and lovingness of the title character. There are hints that her self-sacrifice is a kind of self-glorification (as her husband pretty much states flat out during the argument they have just before they separate). The commentary by so many of the reviewers of this film is incisive and goes some distance toward answering one of my key questions about this film: Just how dated is it? Perhaps like me you groaned just a little bit during the interrogation scenes, perhaps you cringed a tad when Joan Crawford (of all people) started mouthing platitudes about motherhood and sacrifice. But if you're at all like me, you couldn't help but get caught up in this melodramtic mix. It gets campy in parts, but camp has to have a core of emotional truth if it's going to succeed. Mildred Pierce succeeds very well indeed. It is indeed a fascinating amalgam of two wildly divergent styles. As with "Casablanca" before it, director Michael Curtiz offers a bit of romance, a lot of self-sacrifice, and just enough intrigue. It does comes off a little dated then, but it's hardly just a period curio. It remains hugely entertaining.
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Summary: A Successful Marriage Of Genres
Review: Mildred Pierce represents a generic twinning of Melodrama and Film Noir that both articulates the misogynistic overtones of Noir and the emotional conflicts, both internal and external, of the`women`s film`.Its success lies in the fact that it does not implode under the pressure of bridging two gender opposed categories of narrative. Joan Crawford won an oscar for her role as Mildred, the stereotypically idealised housewife, who is modulated into an ideological challenge to American patriarchal hegemony when she oversteps the bounds of her subservient role by challenging her husband(she accuses him of having an affair and of not doing enough to find work---thus challenging male power on its two most cherished fronts).This triggers off a set of events that leads to the eventual reincorporation of Mildred into the patriarchal family unit, via a rise and fall story whose trajectory is determined by Veda, a superbrat daughter. Veda serves both as the melodramatic drain on the central characters emotions and as the femme fatale of the films noir strand.Zachery Scott is also notable as the louche 2nd husband who inveigles his way into Mildred`s affections, and purse, whilst betraying her with Veda. An interesting, not always comfortable, blending of 2 distinct genres, `Mildred Pierce` is carried through by the superb performances of its leading cast and some bravura directorial touches, particularly in the Noir sections of the film.The final image, of woman restored to her `rightful` place next to her husband matches up both the emotive element of melodrama with the libidinal power relations of Noir. Watch it and see.
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Summary: Joan Crawford is wonderful!
Review: Mildred Pierce is a hard working housewife who wants the absolute best for her two daughters, especially the oldest one. Her younger daughter is more of a tomboy, but the oldest one expects her mother to provide the best of everything. When Mildred's marriage ends, she takes a job as a waitress and continues providing her daughter with the finest dresses, piano lessons, etc. Her daughter is such a snob, Mildred doesn't even want to tell her that she is a waitress, just in case the girl would think less of her. Eventually, Mildred decides to open her own restaurant. When her younger daughter dies, Mildred becomes even more focused on her older girl and the restaurant business. The annoying part of this film is that Mildred's daughter was a spoiled brat who desperately needed to be put in her place, but her mother could never see that. The sole reason for all of Mildred's hard work is for this daughter. When a murder takes place toward the end of the movie, Mildred once again tries to protect the girl, but this time it's too late. It is rather ironic that this is the role Joan Crawford won the Oscar for, considering what her real life daughter wrote about her in 'Mommie Dearest.'
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Summary: Joan Crawford's Tour-de-Force!
Review: This is Joan Crawford's movie all the way. Women's film noir. Great direction by Michael Curtiz, and a top-notch supporting cast. Ann Blyth is a stand-out as the bitchy ungrateful little daughter. It has some soap-operish qualities but it still doesn't diminish the quality and the entertainment value of the film. Joan Crawford delivers a legendary performance. Great script that also works as a murder mystery. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film an 8!
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Summary: Joan Crawford vs. James M. Cain: Joan Wins
Review: James M. Cain's pitilessly observed, unsentimental novels made for three key 40s films: Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Mildred Pierce. Since the first two deal with homicide, when they brought Mildred Pierce to the screen they turned a sociological melodrama about a woman's rise to power and prosperity into a murder mystery, too. That grotesque distortion aside, Mildred Pierce remains essentially true to this story of hauling yourself up the ladder rung by greasy rung and of a sharper-than-a-serpent's-tooth daughter. (Oops! One more change. The daughter Veda -- Ann Blyth -- a coloratura soprano in the novel, becomes a hoochie-koochie singer in a bar.) Director Michael Curtiz, fresh from his labors on Casablanca, helmed the project with a few more flashes forward and back than are absolutely essential; still, he gives the proceedings a good sense of time and place. This is probably one of Crawford's most successful screen portrayals (after all, she won the Oscar in 1945 for it) but one can only imagine what it would have been like with a script closer to Cain's and with Barbara Stanwyck -- who was BORN to play Mildred Pierce -- in this archetypal plot.
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Summary: Slap Her Harder, Mildred!
Review: This movie could also have been called The Daughter From Hell. Joan Crawford plays a very giving mother who wants her children to have the best of everything (especially Veda). To accomplish this, she starts her own business which becomes incredibly successful and she sacrifices herself. Her reward is the most selfish, uncaring, self-centred daughter you'll ever see on the screen. I have certain problems with this film. First of all, I'm not a Crawford fan, although I will admit she's good in the movie. Secondly, I have hard time believing this mother-daughter relationship (it's too extreme). And thirdly, the movie leans more closely to melodrama than film noir (which is what I wanted to see). Having said all this, I would still recommend the movie because there is a pretty good mystery in the way the plot is constructed, Eve Arden is great as Joan's wisecracking assistant, and Ann Blyth is excellent (you'll hate her) as Veda, the daughter no one would want. It's a well made movie, and it will probably appeal to a lot of people.
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Summary: Joan's Oscar!
Review: Bette Davis turned down this tawdry tale of a housewife who becomes a tycoon from baking pies and starting a restaurant chain called (surprise) Mildred Pierce. Joan's fantastic as the betroubled mother of two daughters, Kay and Veda. But this brings up the weakest element of this classic film. Veda is such a creamy, hard-boiled monster that you can't believe her (played in an unreal, strange way by Ann Blyth). Nor is it possible to believe Mildred would keep forgiving her for all the horrible things she does. Bizarre as it sounds, I wish Bette Davis could have played the Veda role and oh, boy, would things have exploded. Blyth is much too cool and marbelized while Joan keeps forgiving, forgiving. Still, the movie is wonderfully produced with great sets, photography, and yet another memorable film score by genius Max Steiner.Eve Arden brilliantly portrays Ida, everybody's chum, who says at one point to Mildred: "Alligators have the right idea. They eat their young." After sitting through this, you may also wonder how this movie would have turned out if Bette had taken the role of Mildred--or in our fantasies, the role of Veda. Anyhoo, bravo to Joan who really deserved the Oscar she won.
Rating:
Summary: This Movie Was Great
Review: To be honest, I'm not a big fan of older movies. It happens that I viewed this a few months ago and was pleasantly surprised at how well done Mildred Pierce was. It's one of the few older movies I've really enjoyed. Joan Crawford did a stunning acting job, and the plot never falters. Recommended.
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