DIRECTOR: Michael Curtiz
BOTTOM LINE: Joan Crawford plays Mildred, and Ann Blyth plays Veda, the most ungrateful daughter in Cinema history, in “Mildred Pierce,” director Michael Curtiz’s masterful adaptation (from an Oscar-nominated script by Ranald MacDougall and several other uncredited writers) of the 1941 novel by James M. Cain. It was Crawford’s first starring role for Warner Bros. after leaving MGM, and she deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Actress of 1945.
“Pierce” is the centerpiece of the mid-1940s Cain triptych, the other two movies being Billy Wilder’s “Double Indemnity,” produced at Paramount in 1944, and Tay Garnett’s “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” produced at MGM in 1946. All three movies are characterized by plots that hook you immediately and contain some of the best acting and directing of the 1940s, making Cain one of the best-served writers whose works have been adapted to the screen by Hollywood.
The film opens on the Santa Monica pier with the murder of Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott), Mildred’s second husband, and the sequence ends with a magnificent close-up: a reflection of Crawford’s Mildred bathed in fur. The police tell Mildred that her first husband, Bert Pierce (Bruce Bennett), is guilty of the murder because he owns the gun, has a motive, and does not deny the crime. Mildred protests that he is too kind to commit murder and begins to tell her story to the officer.
LIKE MOST OF THE GREAT FILM NOIRS FROM THE FORTIES, “MILDRED PIERCE” THEN PROCEEDS WITH CRAWFORD’S NARRATION, AND THE NARRATIVE UNFOLDS IN FLASHBACK
Mildred and Bert Pierce are an unhappily married couple living in the LA suburb of Glendale, California. After Bert splits with his business partner, Wally Fay (Jack Carson), Mildred must sell her baked goods to support the family. Bert accuses Mildred of favoring their two daughters over him. Their quarrel intensifies after a phone call from Bert’s mistress, Maggie Biederhof (Lee Patrick), and they separate.
Mildred retains custody of sixteen-year-old Veda (Blyth), a bratty social climber and ten-year-old Kay (Jo Ann Marlowe), a genial tomboy, and ten-year-old Kay (Jo Ann Marlowe), a genial tomboy. Because they live in working-class Glendale, as opposed to the more sophisticated, adjacent Pasadena, Veda lives her life in constant shame. She must be placated by a stream of material possessions from Mildred, who secures an additional job as a waitress, and then parleys her skills into what turns out to be a highly successful chain of chicken-and-waffle restaurants called “Mildred’s,” which she runs with her good friend Ida, beautifully played by Eve Arden in her only Oscar-nominated role. Because of Arden’s unique delivery, Ida becomes the film’s voice of reason, and her character is contrasted with that of Mildred, whose life is consumed with ever-increasing schemes to get the respect and love of her daughter.
Mildred meets the Pasadena playboy Monty Bergeron and, although she does not love him, she marries him so that he can introduce Veda into elite society. Monty, himself, is not wealthy, and Mildred begins embezzling from her own business to cover Monty’s family’s debts, in addition to Veda’s lavish lifestyle; nevertheless, all of Mildred’s Herculean efforts to please Veda amount to nothing.
Brilliantly filmed in high Germanic style by a wondrously talented bunch of ex-pat Viennese uber talents (in addition to Curtiz, we have the production design of Anton Grot and one of Max Steiner’s excellent scores) – plus the stunning black-and-white cinematography of Ernest Haller – “Mildred Pierce” is one of the great film noirs of the forties.
Although there is no identifiable gay character, Curtiz’s presentation of high melodrama, bordering on camp, makes “Pierce” a Queer Film par excellence. Zachary Scott, whose Hollywood career gradually ran out of steam before the end of the decade, gives Monty a fey touch, constantly raising the possibility that his sexual proclivities also extended to men.
I also love “Mildred Pierce” for its lack of subtlety in the health department. Watching it reminds me that when a character coughs, even just a single cough, in a pre-1960 Hollywood movie, you know that they will be dead in the next scene or indeed in the scene after that. Remember poor Elizabeth Taylor in “Jane Eyre”. From that first delicate hack, you knew she was a goner.
This scenario plays out in “Pierce” with Kay, the good daughter. With just one cough, we know that Kay’s fate is sealed and that her chances of surviving the trip to Lake Arrowhead with Veda and Bert are slim!
Astonishingly, she does make it back to Glendale—but in an oxygen tent! This allows Curtiz to set up one of the most memorable scenes in the movie. When poor Kay takes her last breath, even before Mildred or Veda has time to react, the nurse rushes to turn off the precious oxygen supply.
This scene never ceases to send me into paroxysms of laughter. However, I never stop caring. Like Robert Aldrich’s “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane,” “Mildred Pierce” plays as drama and camp simultaneously, with no dichotomy involved. And for that, I am always grateful.
Warner Bros.
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