"Mildred Pierce" (1945)

[Daisy Buchanan]

I just watched "Mildred Pierce" on TCM this morning. What a great film. Oh that Joan Crawford, she makes for a great film.
I won't go into the details just in case people haven't seen it. If you haven't I recommend it. It's a story of love, loss, betrayal, murder and wealth.
The girl who plays Crawfords daughter, Veda, was great too. She looked so much like a little Crawford. The two worked really well together.

An enjoyable movie all around. Has anyone else seen this? What did you think? For those of you who've never seen it, I recommend giving it a watch, even if it is to just look at the beautiful clothes and hair!

 

[jitterbugdoll]

I saw this film a couple of years ago, and I really enjoyed it.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Great minds do think alike!!
fftopic: Your new avatar is great!!

 

[ShooShooBaby]

daisy, i've seen this movie a couple times and i really like it as well. i agree that the clothes in it are great, and the acting is pretty good as well. the daughter is beautiful but so evil! that's the depth of my analysis/review for now... i find it really entertaining and dramatic!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh gee, Ann Blyth is remarkable in this film -- acting opposite Joan Crawford must've been rather like putting your head in a circus lion's mouth, but she really does a magnificent job. And yes, it;s a gorgeous-looking film -- mid-forties fashion at its best!

 

[jitterbugdoll]

Great minds do think alike!!

So true. lol

fftopic: Your new avatar is great!![/

Thank you!

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

I agree, Ann Blythe was wonderful. What a character she had to play, and opposite Joan Crawford. I honestly think, even in that era when actors were incredible, that there were few actresses who could have pulled off such a feat. She was great to watch, how she would be smiling and sweet and then turn around and be so evil. What a horrible little girl she was, and so sad that all Mildred wanted to do was to please her and give her everything. There were points in the film when I wished that Mildred would have stood up and put the child in her place. She would have done it to anyone else, but her love and need to please her daughter prevented her from doing so. The two worked so well together and they even looked like they could have been mother and daughter.

 

[Paisley]

Indeed. People who are handed everything seem to think they deserve it--and only want more.

 

[Fletch]

Waaay back in the '40s, my mom's best friend's brother used to date Ann. He wound up a never-married confirmed bachelor. Hmmm.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Indeed. People who are handed everything seem to think they deserve it--and only want more.

So very true Paisley. They have the firm belief that everything should be done for them by someone else. I felt so badly for Mildred when she came home after a long day and had a long night of pie making ahead of her and saw her waitress uniform on the housekeeper (the housekeeper that she couldn't afford but got because of her daughter). She was so worried that Veda had found out that she was waiting tables. Mildred didn't want her to know because she knew Veda would be ashamed of her, which she was. This poor woman worked her fingers to the bone, yet nothing was ever good enough. Also if she didn't have handed to her the things that she wanted, she just took them. After all the fighting her Mom did for her, she still treated her like crap, like a servant. As if her Mom had been put on this earth to cater to this spoiled girls every whim. It was hard to see this Mom working so hard to please this spoiled brat, and then to see the phony thank yous Veda would say to her face, and then see her turn around to walk away and make that spoiled rotten nothings good enough face. Like the scene in the beginning when Mildred buys Veda a pretty dress. It arrives by mail and Mildred gets a bit of a lecture from her husband about spending money, for they had fallen on hard times. Mildred explains that she paid for the dress by making and selling cakes. Veda puts on the dress, Mildred is about to step in the room to see her but she hears Veda say how ugly the dress is and that it's made of cheap material. Up until the very end, even when Mildred is in trouble, she defends her spoiled rotten daughter. She had never been put in her place as a child, so as an adult she just expected to have everything that she wanted, including her Mothers second husband. I don't want to say anymore for those of you who have yet to see it. But this character was quite frustrating to watch. She was a spoiled brat who pushed all boundaries until finally she got herself in trouble.

Waaay back in the '40s, my mom's best friend's brother used to date Ann. He wound up a never-married confirmed bachelor. Hmmm.

Hmmmm is right! I wouldn't mind hearing the juicy details of that story!!! She was so like Joan Crawford in the movie, they made a good mother daughter team. I'm assuming, given your Mom's best friend brothers situation, that Ann must have been similar to Joan in real life as well. Joan had a bit of a reputation as being not so eash to date To put it lightly. I have a feeling there are quite a few men who dated her who ended up never marrying after their experience with her. She'd beat me for sure if she saw all of the wire hangars in my closets!! lol

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I do like Mildred Pierce. I'm a huge Joan Crawford fan and I think she looked her BEST in that movie.

 

[jake_fink]

Jack Carson rules. One of the great under-rated actors of his - or any - generation.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

I got to see this on the big screen a couple of days ago. Very different experience.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

When I woke up this morning I thought of this movie for some reason. I love this movie. My dad met Ann Blyth when they were in a play together but he was already married so that's good, otherwise I wouldn't be here if they'd dated! lol

 

[Decobelle]

It is one of my favorites too. I always though singing & dancing in Wally's club like Veda would be a dream come true.

I think this was Joan's first film for Warners, having been dumped by Metro, and this was a huge comeback for her. She had reinvented herself yet again and was rewarded with a best actress Oscar.

Ann Blyth is still a cute lady, and a good singer! She came to a screening of Mildred at the Castro theater in San Francisco last year.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Oh gee, Ann Blyth is remarkable in this film -- acting opposite Joan Crawford must've been rather like putting your head in a circus lion's mouth, but she really does a magnificent job. And yes, it;s a gorgeous-looking film -- mid-forties fashion at its best!

Ann Blyth's said many times that working with Crawford was one of the best experiences of her life, that Crawford was a total professional, and that she was exceedingly kind to Blyth on and off the set, and for decades afterward. She's another one who feels Christina Crawford's book was pure fiction and just done to make money, and do a little ax-grinding after being cut out of the will.

And as noted on another post here at the Lounge, Bruce Bennett, who played Mildred's first husband in the film, died last week at 100. He had small, memorable parts in many classic films - Mildred Pierce, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Nora Prentice, Dark Passage, Mystery Street and many others.

It's a great film.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

If you ever get to visit Hollywood (or, to be exact, Los Feliz), check out THE DERBY nightclub. It has the original long oval bar that Joan Crawford tended in Mildred Pierce.


I've sat by it often, but have never had Joan sidle up to me ... thank goodness!


.

 

[Lou-Lou]

I can honestly say that "Mildred Pierce" is one of my all-time favorites. In Sweden we have a cinema that only show old movies on the big screen (when they're not showing "Top Gun" and other high-quality "classics"...), and seeing that one was quite a thrill. Right know the're showing a serie of Hitchkock's masterpieces, focusing most on those from the 20's & 30's - so you should all come to Sweden guys!

 

[HadleyH]

For me,there is something scary about Joan Crawford circa 1940, 1950, 1960, and I don't know what it is...I really don't know, these words from a biography reflect my sentiments exactly: - "...ruthless, cunning, lonely woman who knew every trick of survival". -

Now if we start talking Joan Crawford circa 1920s-1930s, well it's a completely different strory, who can forget her as the delightful flapper in any of her "modern maiden" films, or the shop-girl she became in the years of the Depression where every american girl identified with her!
That's the Crawford I like best.

 

[Fletch]

Or Flämmchen, the stenographer, in Grand Hotel in 1932. She was never sexier.

In fact, much after that I never found her sexy at all. She seemed to turn into a cartoon of womanhood, a portrayer of pathologies.