Directed by:
Michael CurtizCinematography:
Ernest HallerComposer:
Max SteinerCast:
Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Bruce Bennett, Lee Patrick, Moroni Olsen, Veda Ann Borg, Jo Ann Marlowe, George Tobias (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Melodrama casts noirish shadows in this portrait of maternal sacrifice from the Hollywood master Michael Curtiz. Its iconic performance by Joan Crawford as Mildred, a single mother hell-bent on freeing her children from the stigma of economic hardship, solidified Crawford's career comeback and gave the actor her only Oscar. But as Mildred pulls herself up by the bootstraps, first as an unflappable waitress and eventually as the well-heeled owner of a successful restaurant chain, the ingratitude of her materialistic firstborn (a diabolical Ann Blyth) becomes a venomous serpent's tooth, setting in motion an endless cycle of desperate overtures and heartless recriminations. Recasting James M. Cain rich psychological novel as a murder mystery, this bitter cocktail of blind parental love and all-American ambition is both unremittingly hard-boiled and sumptuously emotional. (Criterion)
(more)Cast
Betty Alexander
USA
Best movies:
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
The Princess and the Pirate (1944)
Frank O'Connor
USA
Best movies:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Charles Jordan
UK
Best movies:
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Mr. Skeffington (1944)
Edge of the City (1957)
Charles Trowbridge
Mexico
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
Captains Courageous (1937)
After the Thin Man (1936)
Chester Clute
USA
Best movies:
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Claire Carleton
USA
Best movies:
The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Westward the Women (1951)
Clancy Cooper
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
Paul Panzer
German Empire
Best movies:
Casablanca (1942)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Wallis Clark
UK
Best movies:
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Barbara Brown
USA
Best movies:
Mildred Pierce (1945)
You Were Never Lovelier (1942)
The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)
Leah Baird
USA
Best movies:
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Kings Row (1942)
Manpower (1941)
George Meader
USA
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
Scarlet Street (1945)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Garry Owen
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
You'll Never Get Rich (1941)
Ramsay Ames
USA
Best movies:
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Follow the Boys (1944)
The Running Man (1963)
Wheaton Chambers
USA
Best movies:
Song of Love (1947)
The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
David Cota
USA
Best movies:
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Adventures of Don Juan (1948)
Montana (1950)
Angela Greene
Ireland
Best movies:
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Mr. Skeffington (1944)
Tickle Me (1965)
Joan Winfield
Australia
Best movies:
Rhapsody in Blue (1945)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Gentleman Jim (1942)
Tom Dillon
Ireland
Best movies:
Scarlet Street (1945)
The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Perk Lazelle
USA
Best movies:
Limelight (1952)
North by Northwest (1959)
Inherit the Wind (1960)