Mildred Pierce

1945 Directed by Michael Curtiz

The kind of woman most men want - BUT SHOULDN'T HAVE!

After her unfaithful husband leaves her, Mildred Pierce proves she can become independent and successful. However winning the approval of her spoiled daughter proves a greater challenge.

Joan Crawford Jack Carson Zachary Scott Eve Arden Ann Blyth Bruce Bennett Lee Patrick Moroni Olsen Veda Ann Borg Jo Ann Marlowe Betty Alexander Ramsay Ames George Anderson Robert Arthur Lynn Baggett Leah Baird Dorothy Barrett Barbara Brown Claire Carleton Doria Caron Wheaton Chambers Wallis Clark Chester Clute John Compton Joyce Compton Clancy Cooper David Cota Tom Dillon James Flavin Show All…

Alternative Titles

El suplicio de una madre, Solange ein Herz schlägt, Le roman de Mildred Pierce, Alma em Suplício, Alma en suplicio, Mildred Pierce - amerikkalainen nainen, Thyella se mitriki kardia, Il romanzo di Mildred, Милдред Пирс, En amerikansk kvinna, Ömre bedel kadin

drama crime

111 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Timcop ★★★★★

Never have children.
Review by Cassandra ★★★★★ 3

FIRST OF ALL, how in the world could a sweet woman like Mildred Pierce raise the demon that is Veda???
Secondly, I love feminism in early films and the portrayal of women who do shit on their own without the help of men, providing for themselves and their family. And on a personal note, I love and appreciate mothers who make sacrifices every day for their kids-- there are millions of them whose sacrifices go unnoticed.
This film is cruel in too many ways, but I loved every second of it.
Review by russman ★★★★ 5

Livin' la Veda Loca
Review by Sara ★★★★★

My friend yelling "OH MY FUCKING GOD" every time Veda showed up was the biggest mood
Review by Cassandra ★★★★★ 1

Imagine not loving Joan Crawford... seems like a sad way to live.
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★½ 1

70/100
Watched this nearly back-to-back with Haynes' version (second viewing in both cases; hadn't seen the Curtiz in over 20 years), and could now write an epic piece on the challenges of literary adaptation, as well as a separate epic piece on artificiality vs. naturalism. Strict fidelity to Cain's novel wasn't even remotely an option for 1945 Hollywood, of course, but the choice to reconceive the story as a sort of murder mystery, told in flashback, seems inspired as much by necessary compression as by the dictates of the Hays Code. Like Glazer's Under the Skin, Curtiz's Mildred Pierce is essentially an original work very loosely inspired by its source; useful elements were retained and transformed, while everything else (most…
Review by Sara ★★★★★

DARTH VEDA
Review by Cassandra ★★★★★

Veda: *breathes*
Me: ELECTRIC CHAIR!
Review by Hannah ★★★★ 1

Kay: *coughs once*
My grandma: Oh she's gonna die.
Review by Dragonknight ★★★★ 4

Film #20 of Project 40
”Personally, I think alligators have the right idea. They eat their young.”
For two reasons Mildred Pierce is a historically significant movie: first unlike most of the male dominant movies of the Golden Age of noir its central character is a woman who is fighting to build her own universe in the middle of a masculine world and second it might be one of the earliest movies to employ flashback technique to tell its story. This is a movie where you can witness the genius of Michael Curtiz in every frame, you can see it in the shadows that like ominous beasts chase characters wherever they go, in the almost faultless narrative of the film…
Review by sarah ★★★★ 1

These are not full-fledged thoughts—just a subject I’ve sparingly pondered for a while— but I’m so fascinated by the trajectory of female roles through film history, and how our intuitive reasoning somehow equates modernity to equality on screen. A film like Mildred Pierce, one that fleshes out its lead female character with intense sincerity, seems like a rarity for its time, but any shallow dive into classic cinema can reveal that the answer is much more complicated than yes, it is or no, it is not. The fact of the matter is, in an industry produced by men, directed by men, and—perhaps most importantly?—written by men, the material is unreliable in its treatment and depiction of women.
However, stories about…
Review by reibureibu ★★★½ 2

On-screen and in-life, women must live for others, through others. Even when they are "strong, powerful, independent" characters the learned misogyny instilled within us subtly (or not so subtly) renders them as labor more than as people, and Mildred Pierce exemplifies such impossible standards: as Mildred she must cook, clean, and care for her two daughters after their father leaves for his mistress, and she works all day at a restaurant and works all night baking pies, a woman who resolutely climbs her way up and becomes a successful businesswoman so that she can provide everything her daughters will ever need.
But sometimes the people we do everything for will never appreciate our love for them, and the things we do for these people we love will bite and tear and destroy us instead – at least until they destroy themselves.
"Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young."

Recent reviews

Review by Jacob Gardner ★★★★

Heavy on the noir-tinged melodrama but grounded in the reality of working-class cynicism, this Joan Crawford-spearheaded adaptation of the James Cain novel is really a vehicle for Ann Blyth's dastardly Veda; a vehicle she gleefully drives off of a bridge and into the ocean, much to our delight.
Review by Parker ★★★★½

Joan fucking Crawford
Review by Love, Nathan ★★★★

“alligators have the right idea. they eat their young”
mildred pierce feels like it’s so much - in genre, in message, in style, in tone - but it all somehow works? powerful, entertaining and deeply enjoyable. loved it.
Review by Margarita M ★★★★

Mrs. Beragon, being a detective is like, well, like making an automobile. You take all the pieces and put them together one by one. First thing you know, you got an automobile or a murderer. And we got him.
Mildred should have been lesbian and that’s that on that.
Review by iammair ★★★★★

Joan Crawford was a cultural reset
Review by Rob G ★★★★

Crawford should have eaten her children but settled for chewing up the screen. Great casting.
Review by Chris_Roberts ★★★★½

Fuck Veda. Mildred deserved better.
Review by mckenna ★★★★½

the only thing i have to say is fuck veda
Review by colleen ✯ ★★★★½

joan fucking crawford
Review by nuitma ★★★★

Kamu spotu * çocuk yapmayın *
Review by Emre Erköse ★★★★

Notum: 8/10
------
James M. Cain'in romanından uyarlanan film, bir anne ve çocukları etrafında gelişen olayları anlatıyor.
Film, izlediğim en dramatik film noir örneklerinden olabilir. Bir aile trajedisi anlatıyor aslında. Açıkçası filmden çok etkilendim ama bu etkilenme biraz da, anlatılan hikayenin trajikliğinden kaynaklanan bir durumdu.
İşin sonunda seyirciye asıl kötü kim, asıl iyi kim diye sorgulatıyor. Duygusal anlamda ağır bir film.
Review by Jacob Loves Movies ★★★★

Mildred is a total badass and everyone else can get fucked. The ending was predictable early on for me but I really did not expect to enjoy the journey getting there so much. Joan Crawford is the whole show here and her character is so easy to root for. The dialogue is clever and she delivers it perfectly.
Grade: B+