176. Mildred Pierce (1945)

Directed By Michael Curtiz


Synopsis

Mildred Pierce wants the best for her child, but her child is a fucking brat which needs some spanking. Possibly (but not really) the inspiration for the Ramones' Beat On The Brat.

Review

This was an interesting film, as we have gathered by now Curtiz is quite an uneven director capable of the best and worse that this list has to offer. But here he does come up with the goods, well maybe not him as much as Joan Crawford who plays a great part here.

This film is really all about Joan's character, Mildred, a self-sacrificing, strong, working woman who suffers from a deep lack of talent for bringing up her kid. Veda, the child, is one of the most evil depictions of bratiness, ungrateful, materialistic bitch that she is. Oh and she's shtupping her mother's husband, the husband that she married to be able to give Veda her lifestyle.

So as you can see this is a bit Days of Our Lives, but it does something original by mixing family melodrama with film noir. There is a murder, it is told in flashback, it has a voice over, this time by a woman which is original in itself, but also covering family melodrama. Other than this nothing else s amazingly spectacular, it won't blow you away, the twist at the end is not shocking in the least, but still worth watching.

So it is a good film, well directed and superbly well acted.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Carol Burnett parodied the film on her television show in a sketch called "Mildred Fierce."

Rock group Sonic Youth's 1990 album Goo contains a song called "Mildred Pierce."

In one episode of the television series Gilmore Girls (season 6, episode 13) "Mildred Pierce" is used as a verb.

In the film version of V for Vendetta, a Mildred Pierce poster is visible in V's lair.

There are allusions to Mildred Pierce in Pedro Almodovar's Volver. Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) starts a successful restaurant as a result of the murder of her husband by her daughter, Paula.

Trailer, as usual completely unrepresentative of the film! Everything this leads you to believe is a lie: