Mildred Pierce

Mildred Pierce (1945): starring Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Butterfly McQueen
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 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.
****1/2 out of *****