1 / 7

Mildred Pierce

Mildred Pierce. Release date 1945 (USA) By Warner Bros. Director: Michael Curtiz Writers: Ranald MacDougall (screenplay), James M. Cain (novelist). Characters. Complete credited cast: Joan Crawford ... Mildred Pierce Beragon Jack Carson ... Wally Fay

bswift
Télécharger la présentation

Mildred Pierce

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Mildred Pierce Release date 1945 (USA) By Warner Bros. Director: Michael Curtiz Writers: Ranald MacDougall (screenplay), James M. Cain (novelist)

  2. Characters Complete credited cast: Joan Crawford ... Mildred Pierce Beragon Jack Carson ... Wally Fay Zachary Scott ... Monte Beragon Eve Arden ... Ida Corwin Ann Blyth ... Veda Pierce Forrester Bruce Bennett ... Albert ('Bert') Pierce

  3. Plot (www.imdb.com) Mildred Pierce dotes on her daughters while husband Bert looks to Maggie Binderhof for affection. They soon divorce, leaving Mildred to raise the girls on her own. Elder daughter Veda goads her mother about their lack of money and in response Mildred proposes opening a small restaurant. Realtor Wally Fay advises her while making numerous rebuffed passes and introduces her to Monte Baragon whose property becomes the first of a chain of restaurants. Mildred has an affair with Monte. Meanwhile, money-hungry Veda pretends to be pregnant by wealthy Ted Forrester in order to bilk his family of $10,000. Mildred tears up the check, is slapped by Veda, and orders her daughter to leave. After time away, Mildred returns to find Veda singing in a cheap club. Veda will return only if Mildred promises luxury, so Mildred agrees to marry Monte in exchange for a third of her businesses. It soon becomes clear that something is going on between Veda and Monte. Mildred learns of this only after Monte has sold out his third of the her business leaving her bankrupt. She goes to Monte's beach house to kill him... Shots ring out, but what really happened?

  4. Trivia(www.imdb.com) • Joan Crawford had been under contract with Warner Brothers for two years before starring in this movie. To get the role, she had to submit to a screen test after years of flops at MGM - her previous studio - and turning down several scripts at Warner Brothers. • Mirroring her own life, Joan Crawford had also supported herself as a waitress and saleswoman before she achieved success as an actress. • Shirley Temple was originally considered for the part of Veda Pierce. • Monty's Beach House, used in the key opening scene and several others, was actually owned by the film's director, Michael Curtiz. It was built in 1929 and stood at 26652 Latigo Shore Dr. in Malibu. It collapsed into the ocean after a week of heavy storms in January 1983. • The film's release was deliberately held back until September 1945 in the hopes that it would find a more sympathetic audience in a post-war atmosphere.

  5. Reviews Critical reception • The staff at Variety liked the film, especially the screenplay, and wrote, "At first reading James M. Cain's novel of the same title might not suggest screenable material, but the cleanup job has resulted in a class feature, showmanly produced by Jerry Wald and tellingly directed by Michael Curtiz...The dramatics are heavy but so skillfully handled that they never cloy. Joan Crawford reaches a peak of her acting career in this pic. Ann Blyth, as the daughter, scores dramatically in her first genuine acting assignment. Zachary Scott makes the most of his character as the Pasadena heel, a talented performance."[1] • Critic Jeremiah Kipp gave the film a mixed review: "Mildred Pierce is melodramatic trash, constructed like a reliable Aristotelian warhorse where characters have planted the seeds of their own doom in the first act, only to have grief-stricken revelations at the climax. Directed by studio favorite Michael Curtiz in German Expressionistic mode, which doesn't quite go with the California beaches and sunlight but sets the bleak tone of domestic film noir, and scored by Max Steiner with a sensational bombast that's rousing even when it doesn't match the quieter, pensive mood of individual scenes, Mildred Pierce is professionally executed and moves at a brisk clip."

  6. Rm. 202 Film Critics • So, what did you think? What did you like or dislike? • How is this movie different from anything you have seen before? • What did you learn from this film? • Why do you think this film is considered such a classic? Remember it received 5 nominations and 1 Academy Award (Best Actress in a Leading Role).

More Related