Mildred Pierce (1945)

[Steve-O]

What makes Mildred Pierce a great film noir? You don’t have to go too far into the film to find out. Right after the Warner Bros. logo fades off the screen an amazing group of scenes are threaded together to help introduce the viewer to the characters, a rainy beach location and most importantly – a murder.

Mildred Pierce was directed by famed Hungarian-born director Michael Curtiz – a director of an amazing amount of film classics (The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), Dodge City (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940), Casablanca (1942), and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) in five years!). Curtiz had a touch of gold and executives hoped he could repeat his success especially since James M. Cain’s racy novel was considered unfilmable by many. The screenplay was cleaned up due to pressure from the Production code and the story was trimmed to be less complicated than the novel. Even though the film took place in sunny California by the beach, Curtiz used German Expressionistic style to make Mildred Pierce’s world appropriately dark and gloomy. Check out the great use of shadows when Zachary Scott’s body is found by Jack Carson during the opening scene. I think the cinematography and Max Steiner’s dramatic score (and not because of the melodramatic story) is what makes this one of the best film noirs made. Another example is the shocking confrontation between Scott and Crawford at the end of the film. Of course the performances by Scott, Carson, Ann Blyth and Crawford certainly helped elevate the film from soap opera to a gripping drama.

It’s hard to believe today but Joan Crawford wasn’t wanted for the role. She was considered washed up as a box-office draw not to mention she had a reputation for being difficult. Only after leading ladies including Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and Ann Sheridan couldn’t be secured did the go with Crawford. To Curtiz’s surprise Crawford gave the performance of her career. The film went on to become a huge box-office hit and Crawford won an Oscar for her bravura portrayal.

Zachary Scott is fantastic and should have won an Oscar for his role too. Scott as the lazy lounge lizard Monte Beragon– Mildred’s second husband – who, as Eve Arden comments, “(was) probably frightened by a callus at an early age!” is the ultimate playboy leech. The only other performance comparable to it is Tyrone Power playing the womanizer in Witness for the Prosecution. Scott usually comes across too slick in other films (including the disappointing Curtiz/Crawford reteaming in Flamingo Road a few years later) but in this he’s just right. Maybe his naturally slimy Jack-Cassidy-like mannerisms just worked in his favor in this one. You actually feel sorry for Mildred Pierce because of all the people take advantage of her. That is an amazing feat because Crawford usually gets no pity from movie viewers.


Jack Carson plays another man in Mildred Pierce’s life that spends the movie either trying to bed her or get her money. Bruce (Tarzan) Bennett is the third man and possibly the only guy to treat Mildred well. Oh wait, he did leave the mother of two penniless earlier in the film for another woman. Later he does redeem himself and I’m sure most of the audience probably wished they never separated in the first place.

Usually when a film noir has a female lead it ends up not having a femme fatale. Not in this case. Ann Blyth plays the angelic looking Veda. She spends four years in the movie making her self-sacrificing mother's life hell. She's a gold-digger and a spoiled brat no matter how many times her mother tries to straighten her out.

Mildred makes a fortune and then begins to loose it all because of her. “Don't tell anyone what Mildred did!” You'll have to see the movie to believe how evil Veda is.

Rounding out the dames in the film are Eve Arden and Butterfly McQueen playing their usual roles of sassy sidekick and the family maid. Guess who plays which roles? Arden surprisingly received an Academy Award nomination for this but McQueen is actually funnier. Sharp eyes will notice Leigh Patrick (Sam Spade's secretary in The Maltese Falcon) in a small role as Bennett's girlfriend.

The film has lots of drama into two hours but the best -and most visually sunning - parts of the film are the amazing opening flashback sequence and surprising resolution right at the end. This is Crawford's greatest performance.

About the trailer (below): With all the talk in the original Warner Bros. trailer about how evil Mildred was, turns out she's the victim of all kinds of mental abuse from nearly everyone around her. I guess from the guy's perspectives she's the bad one but that's not the reality.

[Steve-O]

Kate Winslet and Todd Haynes to Update ‘Mildred Pierce’ for HBO

There’s a familiar tocsin that goes off in my head each time I hear that a classic film is being re-made. I understand the motivations—either cashing in on a brand (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory), well-meaning but usually foolish homage (Cape Fear), or both—but in a perfect world, I would rather see lousy pictures improved upon than great ones brought low, which is almost universally the outcome. So it was with a distinct ringing in my ears that I learned Kate Winslet and director Todd Haynes are re-making Michael Curtiz’ 1945 film noir classic, Mildred Pierce. I can think of few films in less need of monkeying with, and even fewer Joan Crawford roles in which the actress seems more irreplaceable. True, the new production will be a five hour mini-series for HBO rather than a feature, and I imagine will hew more closely to the original James M. Cain novel, but this only diminishes my skepticism in part.

http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/...-for-hbo/16083

This writer is a bit snarky. I think Kate Winslet in an HBO Mildred Pierce miniseries -- closely following a once unfilmable book from Cain -- is a great idea... I'm looking forward to it.

[rlb32]

I've watched this twice now in the past month or so. Thought it was very good not great but probably deserving of its place in the Top 50 noir of all time.

[bogie]

Bette Davis was the first pick to play Mildred.Shirley Temple was the first pick to play nasty Veda.After Ann Blyth made the film people would come up to her and say,I HATE YOU.Ann would say with a grin,Thank You.

[JohnChard]

Thanks for the indepth read Steve, I watched it last night for the first time, found it to be damn fine and just wrote this review for it >

Mildred Pierce (1945)

Veda, does a new house mean so much to you that you would trade me for it?

Mildred Pierce is directed by Michael Curtiz and adapted from the James M. Cain novel by Ranald MacDougall, William Faulkner and Catherine Turney. It stars Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Bruce Bennett and Eve Arden. Music is by Max Steiner and the cinematographer is Ernest Haller. It was nominated for 6 Academy Awards and won just the one for Crawford in the Best Actress category.

Plot finds Crawford as Mildred Pierce, a devoted Mother of two girls who struggles to not only make her marriage work, but to also keep her eldest daughter, Veda (Blyth), in the luxurious life she demands. Murder, treachery and heartache is about to dog the Pierce family….

Mildred Pierce is of course the film that is often remembered for being the film that saved Joan Crawford`s career. After being dumped by MGM, and tagged with being box office poison, Crawford, it seemed, was destined to be the latest visitor to the acting scrap heap. But Jerry Wald over at Warner Brothers had other ideas. The part of Mildred had been offered to some of the big hitting ladies on the Warner studio lot, Stanwyck, Davies and Sheridan are just three of the names known to have shied away from the role. The feeling was that playing a woman with a mid-teen daughter was a no go for the age proud ladies. But Crawford, just entering her forties, took the role on, and in spite of initial protestations from director Curtiz, gave a terrific performance that landed her the coveted golden statuette and prolonged her film career for another 25 years.

Blending the psychological aspects of the woman`s picture with the physical edges of film noir, Mildred Pierce is something of a unique picture. Very popular on release (it was a box office smash), it was thought that Cain`s source novel wouldn`t transfer well to the screen. Credit then to the writers for managing to create such an intriguing and watchable piece. True, they have had to tone down aspects from the book, and even added incidents and changed characters, but the essence is right and the timing couldn`t have been more perfect for such a story. As film noir was becoming a telling genre in film making, Mildred Pierce also coincided with the later stages of WWII; A time when the role of the Woman, either in the service or at home, was under scrutiny. One of the great things about the film, and the performance of Crawford, is that it cobbles together many character strands of the 40s woman: in life and in film noir. She`s a Suzy homemaker type, asked to be mother and wife, yet driven to be a business woman because she feels she`s lacking in the necessary in the family home. Where the film gets its noir flecks from is that Mildred may also be a murderer, a femme fatale, a woman whose every decision spells trouble. It`s as if the makers (not just here but many others at the time) are saying that a woman`s place is in the home, doing homely family stuff. Intriguing for sure, not necessarily in good taste, but an added spice into the melodramatic cooking pot that already contains greed and obsession.

Told with a flashback structure, the film is smoothly directed by the versatile Curtiz. But both he and Crawford are aided considerably across the board, not least by a truly great “Bitch” performance from Blyth. Veda is at one detestable, spoilt and mean, the daughter from hell, a status-seeking brat whose love comes at enormous cost to those who dare to get close to her. Blyth revels in it and her play off with Crawford is one of the film`s major strengths. The support cast of Scott, Carson, Arden and Bennett are excellent value, while Steiner`s music is unobtrusive and able to shift freely with the narrative twists. Finally it`s left to Hallers photography to capture the feel and mood of the unfolding story. Shifting from sunny suburbia one moment to shadowy expressionistic bleakness the next, the photographer of such notable film`s like Gone With the Wind and Rebel Without a Cause, is integral to the moody excellence of Mildred Pierce.

A murder mystery flanked by asides of class distinction, bad parenting, dubious sexual leanings and pure greed. Yep, Mildred Pierce is no ordinary movie: And hooray for that. 8.5/10

Cheers

[Movie Memories]

Steve and John, those are two excellent reviews. Mildred Pierce is one of my favorite's and a film that I always suggest to someone just discovering film noir.

[Steve-O]

Steve and John, those are two excellent reviews. Mildred Pierce is one of my favorite's and a film that I always suggest to someone just discovering film noir.

I was reading about the HBO miniseries and apparently it doesn't look much like the novel... a lot of the film noir elements that were added for the film have been removed... I can only hope Veda is still a black widow.

[Nauga]

I can only hope Veda is still a black widow.

I was just wondering to myself yesterday how I had managed to miss any reviews or articles about the remake so far... except for one: the story going around earlier this week about Evan Rachel Wood preparing for Veda's full frontal nudity scene I'll never be able to look at Ann Blyth the same way.

[Movie Memories]

Here's a link to a review in the weekend edition of USA Today....http://www.usatoday.com/life/televis...red25_ST_N.htm

Luke warm at best. Looks like no more than another example of a lesser remake of a high-quality older film.

[Arthur Bannister]

Cain's novel is more Emile Zola than Raymond Chandler, so if the HBO version follows the book (which I understand it does) then expect many of the noir elements to get jettisoned. Veda becomes an opera singer!

Personally I think the film versions of both MILDRED PIERCE and DOUBLE INDEMNITY (especially) improve on Cain's narratives.

[Steve-O]

OK... so far the Miniseries is quite good. They got rid of the noir wrapper (and the murder!) but it seems quite loyal to the book -- from what I remember. We watched the original the night before and man that's still a great one. I'm quite impressed by the HBO version -- check out the location shooting. LA by way of NYC.

[Nauga]

Just watched the first two parts and I'm still scratching the hives that little Veda gave me. Well done to the young actress who played her. She's wonderfully impertinent with a little dash of Patty McCormack sociopathy thrown in for good measure.

[MartinTeller]

A movie I'd really like to watch again, but I'm hoping a Blu-Ray is forthcoming...

(review from 4/13/06)

This movie has a lot going for it. The dialogue is sharp, the photography looks fantastic with some excellent use of shadows, and the cast is superb. Ann Blyth is great as the rottenest child you're likely to see, but pity poor Butterfly McQueen, once again stuck playing an inept servant. Unfortunately the plot falls short of greatness... it's watchable, but doesn't offer much that lingers with you. The voice-over is also really overdone and utterly fake in context (even in a movie, it's hard to swallow someone using such flowery prose during a police interrogation). Worth a watch, but not a keeper. Rating: 8

[Steve-O]

Clip from Mildred Pierce:

[NOTW comment bot: comments from Noiroftheweek.com]

The notion that Crawford was not wanted for the role is a myth. WB production files show VERY explicitly that she was at the top of Mike Curtiz and Jerry Wald's list for the role as far back as late 1943.

comment by TomL



This comment was made at Noiroftheweek.com.



2012-12-10T09:07:25.642-05:00

[Steve-O]

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