Mildred Pierce

Starring Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce is often viewed as a melodrama but shares much in common with film noir productions of its time. Instead of the customary male fall-guy it is Mildred (Crawford) who finds herself ensnared in the noir world by the mysterious murder of her playboy husband Monte (Zachary Scott).

Mildred is a housewife who secretly takes a job as a waitress so that she can pay for piano lessons and expensive clothes for her eldest daughter, Veda. Her growing financial independence permits her to open her own restaurant, and eventually a chain of eateries. It is Mildred's success that precipitates the rupture of the nuclear family (she divorces her intolerant first husband) and the eventual murder of her second. Like other noir movies, Mildred Pierce has something interesting to say about gender relations. The portrayal of the independent woman as the source of disruption and the (indirect) cause of evil is quite clear; the message seems to be that when a woman deserts her 'traditional' domestic vocation (i.e. as housewife) the resuits are potentially disastrous.

Lively direction by Curtiz and superb camerawork by Ernest Haller are instrumental in the successful materialization of James M. Cain's novel.

Review by Iain Harral
Taken from EUFS Programme 1995-96