Michael Curtiz

Mildred Pierce

Mildred Pierce

Melodrama casts noirish shadows in this portrait of maternal sacrifice from Hollywood master Michael Curtiz. Joan Crawford’s iconic performance as Mildred, a single mother hell-bent on freeing her children from the stigma of economic hardship, solidified Crawford’s career comeback and gave the actor her only Oscar. But as Mildred pulls herself up by her bootstraps, first as an unflappable waitress and eventually as the well-heeled owner of a successful restaurant chain, the ingratitude of her materialistic firstborn (a diabolical Ann Blyth) becomes a venomous serpent’s tooth, setting in motion an endless cycle of desperate overtures and heartless recriminations. Recasting James M. Cain’s rich psychological novel as a murder mystery, this bitter cocktail of blind parental love and all-American ambition is both unremittingly hard-boiled and sumptuously emotional.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1945
  • 111 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • English
  • Spine #860

4K UHD + Blu-ray Special Edition Features

  • 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • Conversation with critics Molly Haskell and Robert Polito
  • Excerpt from a 1970 episode of The David Frost Show featuring actor Joan Crawford
  • Joan Craw­ford: The Ultimate Movie Star, a 2002 feature-length documentary
  • Q&A with actor Ann Blyth from 2006, presented by filmmaker Marc Huestis and conducted by film historian Eddie Muller
  • Segment from a 1969 episode of the Today show featuring Mildred Pierce novelist James M. Cain
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith

    Cover by Sean Phillips

Purchase Options

4K UHD + Blu-ray Special Edition Features

  • 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • Conversation with critics Molly Haskell and Robert Polito
  • Excerpt from a 1970 episode of The David Frost Show featuring actor Joan Crawford
  • Joan Craw­ford: The Ultimate Movie Star, a 2002 feature-length documentary
  • Q&A with actor Ann Blyth from 2006, presented by filmmaker Marc Huestis and conducted by film historian Eddie Muller
  • Segment from a 1969 episode of the Today show featuring Mildred Pierce novelist James M. Cain
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith

    Cover by Sean Phillips
Mildred Pierce
Cast
Joan Crawford
Mildred Pierce
Jack Carson
Wally Fay
Zachary Scott
Monte Beragon
Eve Arden
Ida Corwin
Ann Blyth
Veda Pierce
Bruce Bennett
Bert Pierce
Lee Patrick
Mrs. Maggie Biederhof
Moroni Olsen
Inspector Peterson
Veda Ann Borg
Miriam Ellis
Jo Ann Marlowe
Kay Pierce
Butterfly McQueen
Lottie
Credits
Director
Michael Curtiz
Produced by
Jerry Wald
Screenplay by
Ranald MacDougall
Based on the novel by
James M. Cain
Music by
Max Steiner
Director of photography
Ernest Haller
Film editor
David Weisbart
Art director
Anton Grot

Current

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Portraits of family dysfunction don’t get much more brutal than Michael Curtiz’s 1945 Mildred Pierce, which features Joan Crawford in an Oscar-winning performance that revived her career. Adapted from James M. Cain’s psychological novel, the fi…
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