Synopsis
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
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Cast
- Joan CrawfordMildred Pierce
- Jack CarsonWally Fay
- Zachary ScottMonte Beragon
- Eve ArdenIda Corwin
- Ann BlythVeda Pierce Forrester
- Bruce BennettAlbert 'Bert' Pierce
- Lee PatrickMaggie Biederhof
- Moroni OlsenInspector Peterson
- Veda Ann BorgMiriam Ellis
- Jo Ann MarloweKay Pierce
Recommendations
- 100
CineVue
A pitch dark noir whose eponymous anti-heroine (Joan Crawford) is surely one of the most compellingly flawed women of the genre. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
Impeccable, bleak gloss, with the supreme Crawford engineering the greatest comeback of them all. Mildred Pierce is one of the finest noir soap operas ever, with the queen of pathos shouldering the storm alone; her efforts snagged the golden statuette as 1945's Best Actress. - 100
The A.V. Club
A masterful weepie adapted from a James M. Cain novel. - 100
Empire
Wow! It may not be art or good taste, but throbbing melodrama doesn't come with more conviction. Even to those usually turned off by the tough Crawford, Mildred is compelling. - 80
BBC
Adapted from a melodramatic novel by James M Cain, it is a magnificent blend of film noir and feminine soap, glossily crafted by Michael Curtiz whose versatile achievements included Casablanca and Yankee Doodle Dandy. - 80
Time Out
James Cain's novel of the treacherous life in Southern California that sets house-wife-turned waitress-turned-successful restauranteur (Crawford) against her own daughter (Blyth) in competition for the love of playboy Zachary Scott, is brought fastidiously and bleakly to life by Curtiz' direction, Ernest Haller's camerawork, and Anton Grot's magnificent sets. - 80
Variety
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. - 75
Chicago Reader
The archetypal Joan Crawford movie.
