MILDRED PIERCE: solid gold entertainment with so much to say

MILDRED PIERCE is the golden age of Hollywood at it's very best - a compelling story beautifully told.

Joan Crawford deservedly won the Best Actress Oscar as the abandoned housewife and mother who claws her way to business success by sheer force of personality only to discover that money doesn't bring happiness. 
The film's subtext is that women who succeed in a man's world must be punished for their audacity. In Mildred's case she's cursed with the most ungrateful daughter (Ann Blyth) in the history of cinema and dragged down by the weak-willed, sponging and greedy men she chooses to surround herself with.
Bruce Bennett, an actor who exuded solidity and terminal dullness, is perfectly cast as Bert Pierce, Mildred's bland, weak, philandering husband whose abandonment of her for a woman who'll service his needs sets her off on the path to material success and emotional meltdown.

Mildred replaces him with Wally Fay (a bravura performance by the underrated Jack Carson), Bert's former business partner and a grade-A sleaze who literally drools at the mouth as he gropes her while describing what her wants to do to her. Unsurprisingly (to everyone except Wally) Mildred gives him the heave-ho when he introduces her to handsome, suave but impoverished playboy Monte Baragon (Zachary Scott), a man with little self respect and even less spine.Mildred's ambition emasculates Monte, consigning him to the role of the female in the relationship, dependent on handouts from Mildred to keep him in the style to which he is accustomed. Mildred meanwhile assumes an increasingly masculine attire. 

It's a message that would not have been lost on audiences when the film was first released in October 1945. Millions of men were returning home after service in World War Two expecting that the millions of women who'd taken their place in factories and many other traditionally male domains for the duration would now revert to their former status as wives, mothers and homemakers.

Even if we put aside the social context of the film's creation, MILDRED PIERCE remains a powerhouse production. Crawford is magnificent under the direction of the superbly talented Michael Curtiz. The film relaunched her career after she'd been ignominiously dumped by MGM and recast her as a woman destined to suffer for daring to believe she was the equal of any man. 
With so much to offer on so many different levels, MILDRED PIERCE is a must see film for anyone who is serious about cinema.