Mildred Pierce

Joan Crawford

Perhaps my all time favorite movie is Mildred Pierce. Its hard to pinpoint one film as an all time favorite, but after seeing Mildred Pierce when I was still a teenager, I think it has all the things that stir me emotionally.

We may become drawn to a movie not only because of its story, but because we like its atmosphere, its characters, or the fashions.

We may have fond memories of having seen the movie before, during a time when we were with our parents and felt safe.

Much of Mildred Pierce was filmed in Glendale California. That is where James Cain, the author of the book by the same name set the stage for Mildred Pierce. I just happened to grow up in Glendale and was shocked to be viewing the movie and discover that the Mildred Pierce house was walking distance from my own. In the movie it was Cabala street, but in real life the name of the street was Jackson. The address, 1143, Mildred gives the house was in fact the real address of that home.

At any rate, I am drawn to Mildred Pierce and never miss it when I know it will be playing on TCM.

I plan for it, and get my work done so that I may sit back and enter Glendale in the 1940s, and the glamor of Hollywood movie making in its prime.




 It was filmed in the 1940's, and the 1940s fashions are my all time favorites. They were totally feminine and polished.

 

 

Ann Blyth

Mildred Pierce also features the stunning Ann Blyth and Joan Crawford. Joan is beautiful bordering on handsome in this movie. She eludes the perfect balance of feminine vulnerability with icy businesswoman. Ann Blyth as at her most stunning ever. When viewing this film for the first time I can recall thinking that Ann Blyth as Veda Pierce was the most perfectly beautiful woman I had ever seen. Not only was she small and perfectly proportioned, but she had an elegant and well balanced face with high cheekbones, slightly slanted eyes and an outrageously gorgeous jaw line and lips. Seeing her as Veda wearing her little suits and hats certainly made me feel like a gawky, lanky, ugly skunk as a teenager, but it also forced me to want to aspire to something elegant and feminine some day.

Jack Carson

The next time I saw Mildred Pierce I was in my later teens and this time I was fixated on Jack Carson. What a hunk! Honestly, this guy is 6' 2", bulky, and perfectly handsome in his well tailored suits that set off his big broad shoulders to perfection. He was cute, big, sexy, smart and funny. How in the heck could Mildred resist him? I could not help but wonder why Mildred was not interested in a hot number like Wally, who would not only have been a sexy thing, but would have been a business asset too.










After drooling over Jack Carson a few times, I took notice of how stunningly handsome and elegant Zachary Scott is in this movie.  He played Monty Barragon.

The clothes and classy way with which they carried themselves fascinated me so much that have always felt stirred in a positive way after watching this movie. Even though there is a murder and some very sad subject matter. Mildred Pierce is a great movie for anyone, but I do believe that it is the ultimate woman's picture.