Mildred Pierce (1945)

Tagline: A mother’s love leads to murder.

Mildred Pierce movie storyline. One of the best melodramatic, ‘women’s pictures’ and film noir classics of the 1940s – and Joan Crawford’s comeback film. Adapted from James M. Cain’s novel. Begins with the murder of Monte Beragon (Scott) in a beach house. Suspect Mildred Pierce (Crawford) is interrogated by police for the killing of her second husband.

In flashback, housewife Mildred is divorced from her husband Bert (Bennett). The hardworking, dowdy woman obsessively dotes on her two daughters, especially rotten, spoiled elder daughter Veda (Blyth), so she is forced to become a waitress.

Through determination and will-power, she opens up a small restaurant, develops it into a successful chain, receives assistance from realtor/rebuffed beau Wally Fay (Carson), and marries socially-prominent playboy Monte Beragon. The petulant, selfishly-ungrateful Veda romances her own step-father behind the restaurateur’s long-suffering back. The murder mystery concludes with a resolution to the question – who murdered Monte?

Mildred Pierce is a 1945 American film noir directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Joan Crawford, Jack Carson and Zachary Scott, also featuring Eve Arden, Ann Blyth and Bruce Bennett. Based on a novel by James M. Cain, this was Crawford’s first starring film for Warner Bros. after leaving Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1996, Mildred Pierce was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry.

Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Starring: 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
Screenplay by: Ranald MacDougall
Cinematography by: Ernest Haller
Film Editing by: David Weisbart
Set Decoration by: George James Hopkins
Art Direction by: Anton Grot, Bertram Tuttle
Music by: Max Steiner
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: September 28, 1945