Really glad someone picked this, like i said i've been wanting to see more of Joan Crawford and also i've been interested in reading the books from the author of Mildred Pierce since i'm reading Farewell, My Lovely right now and the author of MP is seen as one of the major Noir authors of his time along with Chandler and Hammett. Well i'm very glad i hadn't read the book going in as i thought it was a very good mystery, i had no clue what was going on for large parts of it. I dunno it started off with a sort of deflated tone which i think was supposed to go with the detectives being so sure they had their man, Mildred was the major competing force against that tone. Even her ex husbands who were wrapped up in this were calm but she seemed like she was in a daze and that she was likely hiding something, obviously they were pointing me towards her involvement in the murder but knowing how these things go i couldn't see that turning out the case which just left me confused. It reminded me of In A Lonely Place, another Noir where i just didn't have a clue what was going to happen it's the best feeling and i think Crawfords performance as well as the direction were key in setting this up.
Mildred's transformation throughout the film is remarkable, i do have a slight issue with some of Crawford's narration as it kinda explained to you what you were going to watch unfold like her explaining the only life she knew was that of a housewife at the beginnning. My only issue with that is i don't think it was needed, Crawford really does change throughout the movie, she gives a great performance. We see her get stronger, more confident and even more selfish something i see as a good thing considering where she is at the beginning. The thing i least expected was that she remained a good person throughout just about and even gets trampled on like Bert did right to the end, i definitely thought it would be a dark turn story not a petty childhood resentment lasting til adulthood story. And it wasn't random either they planted the demon child seeds in Veda immediately. Wally was a slimeball, his initial interactions (in the flashback i mean) was so weird especially considering his connection to her husband who she had just split with, him being so hands on and while she was clearly not receptive she was still composed and basically polite, i know it's just a 40's thing but man it's so weird to see. Think he was my least favourite character, not just because of that he also seemed like the least important and he was like a stereotypical wisetalking 40's dude to me, his speaking manner in particular got on my nerves.
Must admit it took me longer than it should've to tipple on Veda's role in all this, i mean i got bad vibes from her instantly but i thought at first she'd just be a part of Crawford changing. What a vile over-priveleged POS, just that what she wants more than anything is a maid to run around for her for basically slave wages i'm guessing and at the same time looking down on waitresses. Just the worst sort of people, i get that she's young and it's largely because her parents haven't taught her any better, still though. The weirdest thing about all that is they hint at Bert being a good guy in the police station scene by making him her true love, but then they have him abandon Mildred to bring up the kids herself, not to mention he's openly cheating on her. I do like that in a way though, it makes it harder to sympathize with him and it strengthens Mildred's struggles and the reasons all of this happened. It also says something that the happiest part of her life was during an unhappy marriage to a cheating husband because it was seemingly easy compared to what comes later, which to me is pretty tragic. Veda was an interesting way to go as she was usually just hanging around in the background for the first hour, think it was well done though as she was always on your mind as the reason Mildred was doing all of this. She suddenly becomes very interesting when she gets older, Blyth was really good. Also i have to say i looked at her wiki page after this, seriously look at the photo on her wiki page and tell me that doesn't look like Joan Crawford, hope it's not just me it really took me back. My only issue with Veda was her reasons for turning on her mother were ridiculous, if it was to show a young persons stubborness even when they've got themself in a hole fair enough, but that's obviously not what it is it's much more vindictive considering what happens making it all absurd and revolting.
This didn't quite cross into all-time favourite territory but i do think it was great and it's my favourite Curtiz so far. My favourite thing was probably how large the story was, there was so many characters and relationships and the vast majority of them were interesting, think this is mostly just a very well put together drama. Like every part of it has gotten a lot of attention, possibly that goes with Mark saying Curtiz was obsessed with running every part of his films, i dunno. I'm not the best at talking about visuals but i thought this was stunning. Interested in what you guys have to say about this.
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