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Mildred Pierce
Joan Crawford collected her one and only Oscar as Best Actress for her role in Michael Curtiz's stylish 1945 film noir. It's a tour-de-force performance which signalled one of the greatest comebacks in Hollywood history; a performance which has become Crawford's signature tune. She plays a doting mother driven to the brink of murder. Mildred is left to care for her children by husband Bert (Bruce Bennett) who seeks his emotional and physical comfort elsewhere, with the delightfully monickered Maggie Biederhof (Lee Patrick). Bullied by eldest daughter Veda (Ann Blyth) about the family's lack of money, Mildred agrees to open a restaurant, under the guidance of realtor Wally Fay (Jack Carson) and property owner Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott). The restaurant's success still doesn't provide the materialistic and snobby Veda with the luxuries she desires, so Mildred begrudgingly marries Monte, desperate to win the love and respect of her daughter. However, poor Mildred soon learns that Veda has been having an affair with Monte behind her back. She uncovers the betrayal just as Monte leaves her bankrupt, destroying the restaurant business she helped to establish. Consumed with maternal rage, Mildred vows revenge, and sets off after Monte with gun in hand. Curtiz chooses to shoot most of the film in flashback, opening with Monte's murder, then replaying the events leading up to the killing. Crawford is magnificent, weathering the emotional storm with grim-faced determination, but Blyth is equalling compelling as the young viper who poisons her mother's love with her insatiable greed and selfishness. Also excellent is Arden as the confidant, never short of a word or two to say on matters of the heart: "Personally, I think alligators have the right idea. They eat their young."
