Mildred Pierce (1945)

Mildred Pierce is the story of a woman named Mildred Pierce. The film opens with a man being shot and we later find out it is Mildred's second husband. She is questioned by the police and they tell her she is not a suspect and her first husband is the murderer. She says that cannot be and then the majority of the rest of the film is the story of her life. She always loved her first husband but he left her. At this point she opens up a series of restaurants, watches her youngest daughter die of pneumonia, and discovers that her older daughter is a spoiled brat. Overall, I didn't particularly care for the flashback portion of the film.

The film stars Joan Crawford as the title role. Crawford has a pretty good performance and won an Oscar for her role. The supporting cast wasn't bad and two of the cast members were nominated for best supporting actress. I'm not really used to having female leads in a film noir so that was a little different.

Overall, this is an okay film. It is missing several characteristics of a typical noir film and was a little too melodramatic for my tastes. It's supposed to be the pinnacle of Joan Crawford's career so it's probably worth watching for Joan Crawford fans.

74/100
C

UP NEXT: Another Joan Crawford film, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

this is a old movie