Mildred Pierce

USA, 1945. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Bruce Bennett.

A film noir melodrama, Mildred Pierce is perhaps most famous for being the movie that sensationally rescued Joan Crawford’s career and brought her back to box office success and the stardom she had experienced in the 1930s. Her performance in the title role won her the Oscar for Best Actress. The story, adapted from a James M. Cain novel, is straightforward enough: Mildred’s love for her daughter Veda (Ann Blyth) leads her through a series of catastrophes which she not only survives but uses to transform herself into a highly capable, wealthy and successful businesswoman. Unfortunately Veda is so thoroughly selfish and grasping, the more she gets the more she wants, as Mildred eventually realises (not before time, we the audience are thinking!). The story begins with a murder and is then told in flashback for much of the film's running time, as we gradually learn of the events which led to this violent climax. Crawford’s melodramatic style works well in a movie which combines soap opera with noir thriller. Directed by Michael Curtiz and shot in classic expressionistic style by Ernest Haller (whose cinematography was also nominated), with a memorable score by Max Steiner, the film is a triumph of the talents who produced it. As the men in Mildred’s life, Carson, Scott and Bennett all play their parts well and Ann Blyth is suitable repulsive as the daughter from hell. But the most telling line in the movie is left to Mildred’s business associate Ida (a peerless performance by Eve Arden): "Personally, I think alligators have the right idea. They eat their young."