Mildred Pierce

Holy smokes, what a great movie!

Joan Crawford plays Mildred Pierce in one of her finest performances.  She’s smart, tough, and driven, with just enough blind spots to make her interesting.  It’s such a fine performance because so much of it is Crawford herself – smart, tough, and driven is woven into her DNA.

Here’s the setup:  there’s been a murder.  Crawford’s a suspect.  The interrogation serves as a framing device, giving Crawford the chance to tell us her story and of the events – all of the events – that led up to a fateful night, gunshots, and a man on the floor.

Crawford’s story?  That of a newly-single mother, determined to give her daughters the finer things that she never had.  Pierce never relents in her drive, reveling in its positive consequences (anything  that’ll make a sidekick of Eve Arden is, by definition, a positive consequence) and blinding herself, at least for as long as she can, to the negatives.

This could be melodramatic stuff and, indeed, Mildred Pierce doesn’t shy from melodrama.  But the cast plays it straight, the movie looks fabulous (NOTE: How much better could we all look if only we had Silver-Age lighting directors to illuminate us?), and I found myself, perhaps for the first time in my life, actually rooting for a Joan Crawford character.

Mildred Pierce is just a flat-out terrific picture.  Rumor has it that HBO’s working on a remake, with Kate Winslet in the lead.  While Winslet Can Do No Wrong, she has her work cut out for her.  If the program turns out to be half as good as this film, it’ll be worth watching.