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Mildred Pierce is a 1945 Warner Bros. feature film starring Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, and Eve Arden in a film noir tale about a long-suffering mother and her ungrateful daughter. The screenplay by Ranald MacDougall, William Faulkner, and Catherine Turney was based upon the 1941 novel Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Jerry Wald with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. Mildred Pierce was Crawford's first starring film for Warner Bros. after leaving MGM and won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Plot


While the novel is told by a third-person narrator in strict chronological order, the film uses voice-over narration (the voice of Mildred). The story is framed by the questioning of Mildred by police after they discover the body of her second husband, Monte Beragon.

The film, in noir fashion, opens with Beragon (Scott) being shot. He murmurs the name &quot;Mildred&quot; as he collapses and dies. The police are led to believe that the murderer is restaurant owner Mildred Pierce's (Crawford) husband, who under interrogation confesses to the crime. She then relates her life story in flashback.

We see housewife Mildred unhappily married to a newly unemployed Bert Pierce (Bruce Bennett). He was originally a real estate partner of Wally Fay (Carson), who propositions Mildred after learning that she and Bert are about to divorce. Mildred keeps custody of her two daughters: 16-year-old Veda (Blyth), a snobbish social climber and aspiring pianist, and 10-year-old Kay (Jo Anne Marlowe), a tomboy.

Mildred's principal goal is to provide for eldest daughter Veda, who longs for possessions the family cannot afford. Mildred needs a job and the best she can find is as a waitress &amp;mdash; a fact she hides from Veda. One day, Veda gives their maid Lottie (Butterfly McQueen) Mildred's waitress uniform, thinking nothing of it, until Mildred admits that she is a waitress, infuriating Veda, who thinks it a lowly employ.

Mildred's younger daughter Kay contracts pneumonia and dies; to bury her grief, Mildred throws herself into opening her own restaurant on the coast (next to what appears to be the Santa Monica beach). With the help of her new friend and former supervisor, Ida (Arden), Mildred's new restaurant is a success. Wally helps her buy the property, and then it expands into a chain of &quot;Mildred's&quot; throughout Southern California.

Mildred continues to smother Veda in affection and worldly goods, but Veda is nonetheless appalled by Mildred's common background and choice of profession. Mildred goes as far as entering into a loveless marriage with the formerly wealthy Monty Beragon in order to improve her social standing and impress her daughter. Beragon lives the life of a playboy supplemented by Mildred, much to Mildred's dismay and potential ruin. Mildred ends up losing business thanks to Monte's manipulation and Veda's greed.

When Veda takes up with the scheming Monty, a showdown ensues at the beach house where the film began. We discover what really happened: that Veda, furious over Monte's unwillingness to take her seriously, is the one who shoots him. Mildred can cover for her daughter no more, and Veda is led off to jail.