It's funny that this role was first offered to Bette Davis and she passed on it. Davis was one of the greatest actresses, but I couldn't think of anyone else doing a better job than Joan. She really was perfect in this. Oscar well deserved.
Davis has flatly stated that she was never considered for this film and never offered it. There was a tussle casting it; the director wanted Barbara Stanwyck; Ann Sheridan was considered; Rosalind Russell campaigned for it, agreeing to do “Roughly Speaking” first as part of the bargain. When she was tossed in favour of Crawford she tore up her non-exclusive contract. Crawford got it because she’d been cooling her heels for two years since joining Warner’s and it was in their better interest to finally get her on the screen.
I agree that it was a great movie and Crawford deserved the Oscar. I recently saw for the first time another of her movies. In fact there are 2 other movies of hers that she was great in. One is "Possessed" and I'm drawing a blank on the third. She played a woman who is involved with a married man played by Dana Andrews. It's a woman's name too. Great again! "Possessed" is considered to be Film Noir and I love those movies!
Ann Blyth came to the Castro Theater ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UjW8fG7NhUY.html and shared her memories ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Wd7m0TztdAA.html
@@JayJay-nc7pr Great Acting. Ann gave a beautiful testimony about Joan's kindness. A person has many sides. I think of my mother when l see Joan Crawford because she was my mom's favorite actress. 🌞
Oh, the glitter of Mildred's single teardrop as she is on the phone with the police. ....and Vida thinks her mother will help her hide her crime...✨best. movie✨
I remember my Dad telling me how they used to do this in B&W film Noir movies. they used something called a Keyhole light. that could be shaped and focused to just fall on part or all of someones face. they had alot of impressive lighting effects back then, that I think they Seldom, if ever use anymore with modern films.
Karl Lieck and the sad part is even though that was a character she played there are actual everday ppl out here who r just like Veda😨......scary isn't?
I like how she and Bert walk away together at the end. They’ve essentially lost both their daughters and are ready to support each other. Whether they actually get back together or not is irrelevant. This is a situation where each only has the other to truly understand their feelings.
I think it struck something real inside Joan, who, like Mildred, came from humble beginnings and made something of herself through sheer determination.
A wonderful ending. She loses her youngest daughter of pneumonia, her eldest is convicted of murdering her husband, her business partner/friend Wally steals her business under her and all that's left is the man she divorced but was more honest and real with her than anyone else in her life. On top of that the visual of the two maids cleaning the floor-symbolic of how Mildred was in the beginning of the story- and you've got a well-knitted story.
Completely different ending than the book as Warner Bros. screenwriters took liberties with James M. Cain's novel to make "Mildred" more resemble Paramount's successful film adaptation of Cain's "Double Indemnity" (1944) in which unhappy wife Barbara Stanwyck and insurance salesman Fred MacMurray plot to murder Stanwyck's hubby for his life insurance, thus the tacked on Monty murder at the expense of Veda's career as an opera singer. Novel synopsis: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Pierce
If I was Mildred that would have been the last straw and said “Monty you can take charge now” as in handing vida over to him so he can live with the struggle now. I would of had enough at that point and just dropped her.
I know that Kay, as the little sister, is out of the movie early. She was adorable. Sadly, the actress Jo Ann Marlowe, who played her, was in an accident which left her in a coma for 22 years until she died at 55. In bed in a coma for 22 years. Seeing her in the movie under the oxygen tent is so freaking ominous.
The daughter: Veda was one more brat, let me tell ya. Joan Crawford, what a champ. I love Joan Crawford's movies. Mildred Pierce is one of my favorites. I was mad enough to go through the screen. I even cussed at the TV. I know, I know, this is only a movie. So, I guess Veda done her job so well, I hated her.
I disliked Vida with a passion. Poor Mildred worked her fingers to the bone and sacrificed so much to give that spoiled tramp everything and still it was never enough. I loved Joan Crawford in this and it remains one of my favorite movies
No, it’s a good thing. Miss Davis passing on this role . It was Crawford. Curtiz didn’t want Crawford. He made her screen test for it. She had him in tears.
Loved Joan Crawford - my fav Crawford films are Mildred Pierce , The Women , Johnny Guitar , and Whatever Happened To Baby Jane - having said that i would watch a soup commercial with Joan in it and love it
It's easy to see why this was a role of a lifetime for her - it's how she saw herself as a mother and no doubt she saw her daughter Christina to be a little like Veda (well maybe not just a little). A woman who has worked herself up from nothing and saddled with an entitled brat of a daughter. And sacrificing herself for her daughter - which is no doubt she way she saw it. I hear they have done a remake with Kate Winslet playing Mildred - I cannot for the life of my imagine her in that role.
I saw a video on RU-vid recently that analysed the underlying psychology of this film. I would seem that the author of the novel, James M. Cain believed that women, by working outside of the home and joining a capitalist workforce, deformed/ corrupted the natural mother/daughter relationship. Making the bonds of love/ trust/ respect into a transactional exchange of material wealth for filial devotion. Mildred can never do enough to make Vida love and respect her. Vida is contemptuous of her mother's efforts yet needs the wealth and status she provides. That’s what happens when you try to compete in a man's world, ladies (according to the author and this analysis). Changed how I viewed the film forever.
The movie was made nearly 80 years ago (1945), and the book is older than that (published 1941). Blaming women, especially working mothers, for their "juvenile delinquent' children was a common belief back then. In fact, whatever analysis some YTer gave regarding this film isn't anything groundbreaking. It has been a common analysis of the book and the movie for decades. In any case, Cain's ideas have nothing to do with the truth or the families of today.
@@ValleyoftheRogue Well it was news to me. I found Cain's premise that women working outside the home can damage their child psychologically to be pretty shocking. But that's just me. The movie impressed me as hysterical and overwrought. Vida isn't a deliquent. She's more of a spoiled brat with sociopathic tendencies. And as far as l know, parents are still considered responsible for children who commit crimes.
I like this movie, to me it seems like a tragic ending for Mildred, she loses her daughter, her business and she has to go back to her loser first husband. Her life was so much better when she was a successful businesswoman
Note the round mirror at 4:11... Under what Dutch Old Master, Trusty tool, was this Heaven- Scented cinematographer’s vast, or Seemingly-vast, apprenticeship Served? Or did stormtroup purrs Turn into roars, and torpedo a ship Just beginning to ... well ... Wurst comes first, where’s the waste? A man never fast-claimed, I don’t think, unique insight; only To account for his (admittedly) odd taste.
Best moment in this sequence: Mildred phones the police....and as the phone rings at the other end, Vida reminds her, "It's your fault I am the way I am, mother..."....(for the curious: Ann Blyth was like, 18 in this film..?)
Thanks Joan dearest. This movie was a huge hit. Humoresque she made next is so beautiful it has no match. She was one of a kind. Nobody did it as well.
WOW. Big difference from the book ending. I'm so torn between which is better. Though seeing that brat go to jail was a bonus compared to the original.
1. When someone says 'We need some fresh air in here", don't they usually open a window instead of pull up on the shade? 2. The two doing the floor...isn't that Christina and Christopher (in drag)? I'm somewhat shocked Joan didn't go up to them, kick them in the head and yell "YOU MISSED A SPOT!!!"
Such powerful acting is seldom seen in most Hollywood films nowadays, given the rigorous rehearsals actors and actresses had gone through back in the days of Classic Hollywood. A big thanks to Ms. Joan Crawford, Ms. Ann Blyth, and the rest of the movie stars and producers for a great and iconic movie.😉😊📢🎥📽🎬❤
great movie.....crawford was brilliant in it.......i think crawford was brilliqant in the movie but davis morphed into different characters....crawford read lines with different inflections...
all crimes of emotions,passions without rationale, reason.... yet all this comes with maturity and time, you do not grow however hard you try and say you understand, only time can bring that sensibility in order of that evolved understanding
@@nina1522 instead, the mother monster kicked her out to live with nuns. no wonder joan had emotional issues and drinking problems. if your own mom fails you like that...whats left to the world? poor joan.
