Mildred Pierce
The complex film Mildred Pierce (1945) commented on the appropriate roles for women in the post-war era. As one of the top-grossing films of the 1940s, Mildred Pierce provided a dark composite view of post-war suburban America and suggested that society preferred women to stay in the home. Nevertheless the film offered strong female characters and reversed the gender roles of the typical film noir, ensnaring the lead female character in a series of inescapable calamities that have been provoked by the men in her life.
Based on James M. Cain's 1941 novel of the same name, Mildred Pierce has been compared to the Greek legend of Medea, the story of a woman who seeks to win the favor of her children but who destroys them in the process. Mildred Pierce tries to create a life for herself and her two daughters apart from her unfaithful husband. After leaving her eleven-year marriage, she succeeds in becoming a successful business owner. But in so doing, she neglects her daughters and becomes involved with Monte Beragon, a financially-irresponsible, lecherous man who woos her older daughter, Veda. The more voraciously Pierce pursues her career, the more distant she becomes toward her daughters, eventually losing one to pneumonia and the other to Monte Beragon. And though Pierce appears to have control of the men in her life—marrying Beragon for his name only and verbally dominating her accountant—she is duped by her accountant and new husband Beragon when they sell her business out from under her.
The film differs from the book in that it adds a murder mystery to the plot, which in turn highlights the villainous, opportunistic aspects of Veda and Beragon's characters. Veda's murder of Beragon becomes the focal point of the film and provides a framework for the flashback technique. During the flashback sequences, Mildred Pierce is one of the few noir films to be narrated by a female. In addition, when Pierce confesses to the murder of Beragon to save her daughter, she takes the place of the typical male film noir protagonist who will defend the femme-fatale even to the death. Directed by Michael Curtiz, the 1945 film was a tour-de-force for Joan Crawford in the title role, winning her an Oscar for Best Actress. Ann Blythe, playing Veda, and Bruce Bennett, as Bert Pierce, were nominated for Oscars for their supporting roles.
In the end, both the book and the film suggested that women can not and should not compete with men in business. Pierce loses both her daughters, her business, and her new husband, but she is given a chance at redemption: she can return to her original husband, the original domestic purpose for her life. Given the anxiety in 1945 over the number of married women in the workplace, the film reenforced the idea that women could not be successful mothers and work outside the home.
Further Reading:
Behlmer, Rudy. Inside Warner Bros. (1935-1951). New York, Viking Press, 1985.
Crowther, Bruce. Film Noir: Reflections in a Dark Mirror. New York, Continuum Publishing Company, 1988.
Haskell, Molly. From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies. 2nd ed. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Krutnik, Frank. In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity. London and New York, Routledge Press, 1991.
Rosenzweig, Sidney. Casablanca and Other Major Films of Michael Curtiz. Studies in Cinema series no. 14, edited by Diane M. Kirkpatrick. Ann Arbor, Michigan, UMI Research Press, 1982.
Sochen, Jane. "Mildred Pierce and Women in Film." In Hollywood's America: United States History Through Its Films, edited by Steven Mintz and Randy Roberts. St. James, New York, Brandywine Press, 1993.
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