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Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth ... see more see more... , Lee Patrick , Bruce Bennett , Moroni Olsen , Veda Ann Borg , Jo Ann Marlowe , Barbara Brown , Charles Trowbridge , Butterfly McQueen , Chester Clute , John Compton , Betty Alexander , Ramsay Ames , George Anderson , Lynne Baggett , Wheaton Chambers , Wallis Clark , Joyce Compton , Clancy Cooper , David Cota , Thomas P. Dillon , Bob Evans , James Flavin , Angela Greene , Charles Jordan , Marjorie "Babe" Kane , Marion Lessing , James Lono , George Meader , Harold Miller , Garry Owen , Paul Panzer , William H. Ruhl , Mary Servoss , John Sheridan , George Tobias , Joan Winfield , John Christian , Leah Baird , Richard Kipling , Larry Rio , Robert Arthur , Elyse Brown , Doria Caron , Don Grant , Helen Pender , Tom Dillon , Manart Kipper , Johnny Walsh , Bob Locke Lorraine , John O'Connor

Joan Crawford won an Academy Award for her bravura portrayal of the titular heroine in Mildred Pierce. The original James M. Cain novel concerns a wife and mother who works her way to financial securi... read more read more...ty to provide a rosy future for her beloved daughter, but encounters difficulties and tragedies along the way. Ranald McDougall's screenplay tones down the sexual content, enhancing its film noir value by adding a sordid murder. The film opens with oily lounge lizard Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott) being pumped full of bullets. Croaking out the name "Mildred", he collapses and dies. Both the police and the audience are led to believe that the murderer is chain-restaurant entrepreneur Mildred Pierce (Crawford), who takes the time to relate some of her sordid history. As the flashback begins, we see Mildred unhappily married to philandering Bert Pierce (Bruce Bennett). She divorces him, keeping custody of her two beloved daughters, Veda (Ann Blyth) and Kay (Jo Anne Marlowe). To keep oldest daughter Veda in comparative luxury, Mildred ends up taking a waitressing position at a local restaurant. With the help of slimy real estate agent Wally Fay (Jack Carson), she eventually buys her own establishment, which grows into a chain of restaurants throughout Southern California. Meanwhile, Mildred smothers Veda in affection and creature comforts. She goes so far as to enter into a loveless marriage with the wealthy Monty Beragon in order to improve her social standing; Beragon repays the favor by living the life of a layabout playboy, much to Mildred's dismay -- and possible financial ruin. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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90% liked it

7,480 ratings

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84% liked it

32 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 53 min.

Directed by: Michael Curtiz

Release Date: October 20, 1945

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DVD Release Date: February 4, 2003

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Stats: 619 reviews

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Eve Arden in Mildred Pierce Joan Crawford and Zachary Scott in Mildred Pierce Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce Mildred Pierce Mildred Pierce Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce Eve Arden in Mildred Pierce Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce crawfordian legendary mink coat Mildred Pierce Mildred Pierce Mildred Pierce Mildred Pierce Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce Eve Arden in Mildred Pierce
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Flixster Reviews (619)

  • fb733768972
    January 20, 2012
    fb733768972
    The story of "Mildred Pierce," follows Mildred, a poor woman who is about to divorce her wealthy husband. Once this happens, she results to becoming a waitress in order to put food on the table for her children. She quickly moves up in the business and eventually takes a chance i... read moren creating her own restaurant chain. She becomes very successful and wealthy, but like all happiness, there is always an end. I absolutely loved every second of this film, even though there was an overload of cheesy lines and a scene (which I will not spoil) that was a little too random and subtle to be taken seriously. Besides it's few catastrophically minor setbacks, "Mildred Pierce" helms a spot at the top of my list of mystery films. This film is a journey that I would be willing to take, many more times!
  • ajv2688
    October 18, 2010
    ajv2688
    What a fantastic movie, I loved it, the story is great and the actors are even better! One of my favourite movies.
  • smith44
    March 2, 2010
    smith44
    Ida Corwin: "Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young." Too right. Joan's master performance a riveting film noir film with a suprising ending.
  • flixsterman
    November 13, 2009
    flixsterman
    Not to take anything away from Joan Crawford's performance, but this part had oscar written all over it regardless of who got cast. Strong, heroic female characters were somewhat rare in 1945 and it's easy to see why Miss Crawford fought hard for this role. I would have loved t... read moreo have seen an actress with a little more warmth get the part (maybe a June Allyson or a Linda Darnell). Still, it's undoubtedly Joan Crawford's signature performance. MILDRED PIERCE resurrected her career and cemented her place as a legend of Hollywood's golden age.

    *From IMDB: Both Bette Davis and Rosalind Russell turned down the title role, Ann Sheridan was also considered for the part and Barbara Stanwyck was "very keen to take it" before Joan Crawford won her battle for the role.

    Its interesting to note that Shirley Temple was considered for the role of nasty little spoiled-rotten Veda.
  • bottcorecords1
    March 25, 2009
    bottcorecords1
    Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford) launches herself off the screen like a female Citizen Kane, only her motivation for success is the love of her incredibly spoiled daughter. Every man in Mildred's life, to a tee, is either a shiftless, conniving goldbrick or a brutish lout who lusts... read more after her. It's no wonder Mildred eventually (seemingly) cracks. The movie opens with a murder, and then proceeds to tell how that murder came to take place, starting with her first marriage which ended when her husband walked out on his family for another woman. Left with nothing, except a daughter with a taste for the finest things in life, Mildred works as a waitress during the day and bakes pies all night for the restaurant. Eventually, after years of work, and with the help of her ex husband's old partner (who's desperate to get her in the sack), she goes into business for herself and opens her own restaurant. Her daughter, is disgusted by the common work her mother does, mocks her openly and relentlessly. This daughter would be an enormous star today, probably on Mtv, and probably on some show like "My Super Sweet 16" or "the Surreal Life", but it's the 1940s and no such channels existed, so the daughter's only option in life is to maker her mother miserable. Mildred's suffering seems to be alleviated when she meets millionaire playboy Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott), but it's soon obvious he's just as much a freeloader as her daughter is. When he loses all his money he starts hitting her up for loans to pay for his polo saddles and monogrammed hankerchiefs (all the while, looking down his nose at her for only caring about money). It's quite an epic movie, combining murder mystery with melo-drama, and while it might not be as cinematic as Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane", the comparison is quite worthy. The daughter, Veda (played by Ann Blyth), is probably the most evil film daughter outside of "The Bad Seed", and Blyth plays it excellently, and as much as I hate the term "meaty part" (it just sounds gross and creepy), i think it applies here. Maybe Mildred Pierce is a proto-chick flick, but so what? It had me riveted.
  • ceWEBrity
    June 17, 2008
    ceWEBrity
    An explosive, female-centric noir with a shitload of rotten characters and some interesting moral dilemmas. Also featuring one of the most evil children ever to grace the silver screen!

    More later.
  • kenstachnik
    April 1, 2008
    kenstachnik
    Every character is despicable in this classic Noir by Michael Curtiz. Great dialog to boot.
  • binky013
    March 29, 2008
    binky013
    Chilling. Anytime you actually have a mother pushed to the point of telling her daughter to get out before she kills her, you are looking at a bracing script, and a brave one. Never heard that in real life, but in the context of this film, I'd be hard pressed to say that Crawfo... read morerd is not justified in wanting to kill Ann Blyth. What a daughter. Again, I have to say flixsters that Jack Carson deserved a greater career. A true under-appreciated talent. And kudos for Eve Arden as well.
  • mwilliams078
    March 24, 2008
    mwilliams078
    Mildred Pierce is one of the best Joan Crawford films. Joan looks and acts wonderfully in this film which she won an Oscar for Best Actress.

    Joan plays a hard working woman that starts from the group up to have the best for her family. In time she has a hit restuarant but eve... read moren with this her vicious daughter still wants more. A murder happens and what a great story to watch unfold.....a film worth watching for sure
  • groaningbitch
    January 6, 2008
    groaningbitch
    it's a great parody on maternal love with its contrary perversion. directed by versatile michael curtiz who creates the legend of errol flynn swashbucklers as well as humprey bogart's war romance "casablanca"...this time curtiz bridles the fierce joan crawford to gallope full thr... read moreottle, and crawford's absolute woman power gets enhanced further by her wide-shouldered mink coat, but backfired by her trampy grasping daughter. as one line eve arden suggests "alligators have the right idea. they eat their young" which would be the most advocative notion after viewing this flick.

    crawford plays title character mildred pierce who possess the ironly mettle to perform her maternal duty. after her husband's sudden collapse of career which unfortunately leads to divorce, she stiffens her heart to go thru all sorts of hardship to be a successful businesswoman who could offer her children the best qualities of life. ironically this grandeur female menace is pupeteered by an adolescent brat whose every snobbish comment could induces ripples, sometimes even waves of tides, inside mildred that enslaves her into a unrepetent sucker-alike provider, just like nature's merciless circuit of food chain. worse of all, later her giglo-alike lover joins the league of her daughter on the scheme to drain the last penny of this seemingly powerful woman.

    ann blyth plays the highly manipulative daughter who combines sinisterness and childishness into the right dose of objectionability. only eve arden who plays mildred's confidate could almost upstage blyth's bitch-perfect pungency. when blyth remarks "i like you, ida...you're so delightful...for a bitch", she conducts herself with ease.."i like you, too." that means a toast back to fellow-bitch.

    the best pleasure of this flick is to witness a bunch of shrews urgently vying for their paranoiaic sense of esteem effortlessly. also crawford's boisterous private family affair of "mommie dearest" might also contrast or complement "mildred pierce" as another page of best exemplified cynicism in old hollywood history.

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Critic Reviews

July 25, 2011
TIME Magazine

All this is good melodrama and fair entertainment, but it is much closer to the waltz-time schmalz of Kathleen Norris than to the fox-trot brass of James M. Cain. Full Review

Don Druker
October 17, 2007
Don Druker, Chicago Reader

The archetypal Joan Crawford movie. Full Review

Variety Staff
October 17, 2007
Variety Staff, Variety

A class feature, showmanly produced by Jerry Wald and tellingly directed by Michael Curtiz. Full Review

March 25, 2006
New York Times

Joan Crawford is playing a most troubled lady, and giving a sincere and generally effective characterization of same. Full Review

Emanuel Levy
March 25, 2009
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Joan Crawford gives one of her most iconic (Oscar-winning) performances in Michael Curtiz's quintessential film noir and woman's picture of the 1940s. Full Review

October 17, 2007
Film4

An undisputed classic. Full Review

Nick Schager
August 7, 2006
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

A hearty genre pic fraught with tense social/sexual anxieties. Full Review

June 24, 2006
Time Out

The film is a chilling demonstration of the fact that, in a patriarchal society, when a woman steps outside the home the end result may be disastrous. Full Review

Jeremiah Kipp
June 15, 2005
Jeremiah Kipp, Slant Magazine

Though all of its craft is accomplished, Mildred Pierce never gets deep under one's skin the way it ought to. Full Review

John J. Puccio
June 12, 2005
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis

It shows its age in some scenes...yet it survives them all with its riveting performances. Full Review

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    • Veda Pierce: Are you sure you want to know?
    • Mildred Pierce: Yes.
    • Veda Pierce: Then I'll tell you. With this money, I can get away from you.
    • Mildred Pierce: Veda...
    • Veda Pierce: From you and your chickens, pies and kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack and its cheap furniture. And this town and its dollar-days and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls.
    • Mildred Pierce: I think I'm really seeing you for the first time in my life and you're cheap and horrible.
    • Veda Pierce: You think just because you've made a little money, you can get some new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady. But you can't. You'll never be anything but a common frump whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing. With this money I can get away from all the rotting, stinking thing that makes me think of this place or you!
    • Mildred Pierce: Veda!
    • Ida: Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young.
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Mildred Pierce Trivia

  • Joan Crawford won an Oscar for her role in which movie?  Answer »
  • in which movie did bette davis ,not appear in?  Answer »
  • Joan Crawford received her only Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in this 1945 classic.   Answer »
  • This actress won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in "Mildred Pierce".  Answer »
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