Joan Crawford won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the vastly entertaining melodrama “Mildred Pierce.” This was her first role at Warner Bros. after leaving MGM. She received the star treatment at her new place of employment, as studio head Jack L. Warner was executive producer, Jerry Wald was the producer, and Michael Curtiz (“Casablanca” 1942) was the director.
The film tells the story of Mildred Pierce, a Los Angeles restaurant owner whose second husband (Zachary Scott) has been murdered. A major suspect is her first husband (Bruce Bennett) and a number of others, played by cast members Jack Carson, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Butterfly McQueen, Lee Patrick, Moroni Olson, Jo Ann Marlowe, and Charles Towbridge.
Besides Crawford’s sole Oscar, five other nominations went to Arden and Blyth (Best Supporting Actress), Wald (Best Picture), Ranald MacDougall (Best Screenplay), and Ernest Haller (Best Cinematography). The very watchable “Mildred Pierce” is a good example of top-rate film noir melodrama and a great vehicle for Joan Crawford. It was also very popular at the box office for Warner Bros. Pictures in 1945.
Mildred Pierce (1945)
cinema
My Review
Joan Crawford won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the vastly entertaining melodrama “Mildred Pierce.” This was her first role at Warner Bros. after leaving MGM. She received the star treatment at her new place of employment, as studio head Jack L. Warner was executive producer, Jerry Wald was the producer, and Michael Curtiz (“Casablanca” 1942) was the director.
The film tells the story of Mildred Pierce, a Los Angeles restaurant owner whose second husband (Zachary Scott) has been murdered. A major suspect is her first husband (Bruce Bennett) and a number of others, played by cast members Jack Carson, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Butterfly McQueen, Lee Patrick, Moroni Olson, Jo Ann Marlowe, and Charles Towbridge.
Besides Crawford’s sole Oscar, five other nominations went to Arden and Blyth (Best Supporting Actress), Wald (Best Picture), Ranald MacDougall (Best Screenplay), and Ernest Haller (Best Cinematography). The very watchable “Mildred Pierce” is a good example of top-rate film noir melodrama and a great vehicle for Joan Crawford. It was also very popular at the box office for Warner Bros. Pictures in 1945.