Housewife Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford) separates from unfaithful husband Bert (Bruce Bennett). Desperate for money, she works as a waitress which doesn't please her ambitious daughter Veda (Ann Blyth). She starts a restaurant business with help from Wally Fay (Jack Carson), Bert's sleazy business partner, while eloping with playboy Monty Beragon (Zachary Scott). Mildred's success allows her to spoil Veda rotten: nothing matters but her daughter's happiness. But as Veda comes under Monty's callow influence, even Mildred reaches the breaking point.
Mildred Pierce epitomizes that hallmark of Classic Hollywood, a perfectly crafted feature. Screenwriter Ranald McDougall bookends the movie with a noir-ish framing device, matching Ernest Haller's bleak, almost expressionist photography. Curtiz drapes beautiful California mansions and beaches in shadow and darkness, emphasizing the story's tawdriness. No suburban utopia, Pierce's world is a hotbed of infidelity, greed and shocking tragedy. Even the nominal happy ending provides little comfort.
Mildred Pierce benefits from its beautifully-crafted heroine. Mildred evolves from a discontented hausfrau to successful entrepreneur. Her can-do ethic epitomizes the American Dream, achieving success through hard work; she's also a model independent woman, blossoming after Bert leaves her and taking no guff from her paramours and partners. Most Hollywood heroines get ahead by manipulating men: Mildred is a genuine self-made woman, earning every penny.
Mildred's doggedness contrasts with the men in her life, all feckless parasites. Bert is a milquetoast who can't hold a job and flaunts an affair with a neighbor (Lee Patrick). Monty is a self-described "loafer" who beds Mildred to pay his gambling debts. Wally proves even less scrupulous, cooking up a dirty scheme with Veda to swindle a well-off family and trying to bilk Mildred out of her restaurant. Business partner Ida (Eve Arden) provides a wary foil, hep to Mildred's partners: "To the men we love... the stinkers!"
Yet Mildred's success remains remains hollow, as she can't shake her devotion to Veda. A beacon of budding consumer culture, Veda makes no bones of her materialism, mocking her mother's job and complaining her latest dress or car isn't good enough. Veda's disdain spurs Mildred even more, to the point she neglects younger daughter Kay (Jo Anne Marlowe). It's a vicious cycle of warped family values: Mildred's maternal instinct drives her success, yet it only fuels Veda's vanity. Feminist critics have a field day with this movie.
Joan Crawford today conjures images of Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest, beating her daughter with wire hangers. This is unfair to an extraordinary actress who, whatever her personal failings, survived 45 tough years in Hollywood that would have buried most stars. Crawford shared with arch-rival Bette Davis a willingness to play unglamorous characters. Then 39, Crawford salvaged her career with Pierce, winning an Oscar and much acclaim. She spent the rest of her career replaying variants of Mildred, barring oddities like Johnny Guitar and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Crawford's performance ranks among Hollywood's best. She blends Mildred's beaming self-confidence with determination, business sense and maternal wrath, a tough businesswoman but a mother first. Crawford makes her a likeable yet tragic figure, unable to overcome her obvious blind spot.
Mildred Pierce is an undisputed classic. The 2011 miniseries is a more faithful literary adaptation, but Michael Curtiz's film - and Joan Crawford's Mildred - remains one of Hollywood's best.
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