Movie Stats:
Released 1945 (USA)
American, in English
Director - Michael Curtiz
Stars - Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott
Plot Summary:
Mildred Pierce’s (Crawford) obsession with giving her daughter Veda (Blyth) everything she herself never had leads to disastrous consequences. Carson co-stars as Wally Fay, Mildred’s friend/business partner, and Scott as Mildred’s second husband, Monte Beragon.
Warnings:
Violence.
Bad Stuff:
The pacing is a bit slow.
It’s occasionally cheesy/overblown. For example, the opening scene (a murder) made me chuckle.
I don’t appreciate the way Lottie (Butterfly McQueen) is portrayed. It’s borderline offensive.
Good Stuff:
Lots of phenomenal acting. Everyone is so good, it’s hard to single anyone out, but I think Blyth is my favorite. She really made me hate Veda.
I enjoyed the character of Ida Corwin (Eve Arden), Mildred’s wise-cracking co-worker/bestie.
This is the second film in a row I’ve seen where the main female character is complex in an interesting and engaging way (as opposed to the frequent, annoying Hollywood tropes of woman-who-can’t-make-up-her-mind or trickster-seducer-woman). You admire Mildred because of her intelligence and perseverance. At the same time, you want to grab her and shake her and tell her to stop spoiling her awful child. She’s flawed but still sympathetic.
About the Performance:
I like Crawford. While possibly not a great human being, she was an impressive actress. She had a knack for truly inhabiting her characters. I believed that she was Mildred Pierce. I wanted to hate her, because it’s almost entirely her fault that Veda is as awful as she is, but I couldn’t. She was too relatable. You can easily see yourself making the same mistake, borne out of a desperate love for your child. It’s powerful stuff.
Other performances of Crawford’s I’ve reviewed: Grand Hotel.
The Verdict:
The pacing is definitely slow and stilted. I thought the movie was too coy in revealing its secrets, which honestly weren’t exactly secrets because they were obvious from the get-go. I frequently got impatient, like get to the point already. Apart from that, however, I thought it was solid. The acting is the best part. Everyone is very good! It was fun to see Jack Carson (who I only knew as Officer O’Hara in “Arsenic and Old Lace”) playing a completely different character (I’ve since learned that he was relatively famous in his day). I also liked the exploration of the mother-daughter dynamic, the complexity of Mildred’s character, and the soundtrack. A few weeks ago, I watched the first episode of the recent Mildred Pierce mini-series (starring Kate Winslet), and I have to say that the tone of this movie is a better fit for the story. Impressive filmmaking; you should check it out.
I give it 4 stars.
3 comments:
Funny you should mention that Todd Haynes version, I was going to bring it up. It's my only Mildred Pierce touch point. I tried to watch it, but despite really liking Kate Winslet and Todd Haynes, I couldn't get into it. Possibly because it was not a compact, two-hour movie. I think I found the length daunting, even though it's broken into sections.
I'd been meaning to check out this movie, it being shorter and all, and perhaps someday I will.
I have an alternate universe version of me who loves old movies and knows all the stars from back in the day. That version of me would, of course, know Jack Carson was relatively famous. :-)
P.S. With the next post also being a "Joan" I'm realizing that Joan is a nice name that's entirely fallen off the charts. Indeed, I checked Wolfram Alpha and it's basically flat. The average age is 78 years. I like it because I enjoy one-syllable names (good for last names that are hard to spell and/or have multiple syllables. Plus, it's a female name that doesn't end in an "e" or "a" sound. Those are golden.
Hey look! Your name has most of those qualities. Good job, Jan.
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=joan&rawformassumption=%7B%22C%22,+%22joan%22%7D+-%3E+%7B%22GivenName%22%7D&rawformassumption=%7B%22DPClash%22,+%22GivenNameE%22,+%22joan%22%7D+-%3E+%7B%7B%22Joan%22,+%22UnitedStates%22,+%22female%22%7D%7D
Yeah, I don't think I'll finish the miniseries. The whole tone of it is just so "off." Based on the first episode, I never would've guessed that the story is a thriller. Maybe the miniseries isn't a thriller? I guess I'll never know.
I've never been a big fan of my name, but I'm glad that it has qualities that please you. :)
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