‎Mildred Pierce (1945) directed by Michael Curtiz • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Mildred Pierce

1945 Directed by Michael Curtiz

A mother's love leads to murder

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…

111 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Timcop ★★★★★

Never have children.
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★½

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 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 belledejour ★★★★★ 1

Imagine not loving Joan Crawford... seems like a sad way to live.
Review by belledejour ★★★★★ 1

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 Diego Vera ★★★ 4

You give, and you give, and you give but it’s just never enough.

Recent reviews

Review by bobbye ★★★★

the SLAP
Review by merritt mecham ★★★★½

veda is amazingly terrible, joan crawford is amazingly amazing
Review by Mike Seaman ★★★½

The opening 20 minutes of Mildred Pierce is amazing. It had me hooked and I couldn't wait to dive into the rest of the story. The rest of the story was interesting, but none of it lived up to the set up. As in many of the classic films of this era, it does an amazing job playing with light and shadows. Joan Crawford is amazing in this performance. Though at times it highlights the more broad decisions made by her co-stars.

I struggled to be entirely engaged throughout the reveal of the story. Even though I loved the brave choices they made. I think I would've liked more of the Mildred & Veda relationship developed that fed into Veda's eventual hyper-entitlement attitude.

Overall, a fun movie, with a moving performance.

Entered My Flickchart: 608 (76%)
Review by May . ★★★★

Veda is the worst villain in film history.
Review by k-why?-l-e ★★★★★

Yooio
Review by kylab

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

*watches her youngest daughter die*

Mildred: “After that, I had only one thing on my mind, my restaurant”
Review by InSession Film - JD Duran ★★★★

Mildred Pierce - the character - is one my favorite depictions of motherhood in film as it relates to sacrifice and the lengths you'll go to for your children. Even though they don't always deserve it.
Review by Scott Fairgrieve ★★★★

This film starts out in classic noir fashion - a mysterious murder on a rainy night, filled with shadows. In fact, it has one of my favorite openings in all of film noir. The film then shifts to a less inspired melodrama, but comes full circle with its noir bleakness at he end.

It is refreshing to see a film of this era with such a feminist theme, with the men depicted variously as lazy, greedy, cheating, double-crossing, manipulative, shallow or sex-obsessed. But the real villain is much worse than any of them.
Review by taurusvenus ★★★★★

Not sure if I can put it as eloquently as I did the last time I watched this.

While I now believe her best performance to be Possessed, Mildred Pierce is my favourite Joan Crawford role and film. I’m so happy she won the Oscar for this one.

And don’t you just love Ida??

Just one of my favourite movies! I pray cinema has a renaissance of woman’s film.

I’m slightly lukewarm to the Todd Haynes’ miniseries, mostly because this version just completely does it for me.

I cherish I got to see this with Deak on 35mm two summers ago!

And Criterion’s 2017 February was legendary: the Before trilogy, Cameraperson, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and Mildred Pierce!!