Joan Crawford Week: Mildred Pierce

Good day and welcome to Day 3 of Joan Crawford Week. Today I thought we should get away from the MGM years as those were more or less supporting roles and dammit we are gonna let the diva shine. So how about we head over to Warner Brothers to show off the film based on the 1941 novel Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain. With this flick, Crawford won the Academy Award for Best Actress in this film noir about a suffering back breaking mother and her horrific ungrateful brat of a daughter. This is Mildred Pierce.

So whiskey with your whiskey or just the double whiskey?

With a tiny bit of voice-over narrative, via Joan our movie opens in police interrogation after they discover the body of Mildred's second husband Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott of The Mask of Dimitrios, The Southerner, The Young One, It's Only Money and The Rogues) who utters the name Mildred just before death. The cops have a strong suspicion that Mildred's first husband Bert Pierce (Bruce Bennett of Sahara, Dark Passage, The Treasure of Sierra Madre, Perry Mason, Lassie and The Clones) is their culprit, snag him and sweat him under the lamp until he sung like a canary. Shocked at Bert's barbarism she cannot fathom why a man so kind and gentle would ever even think of committing murder.

From there we flashback to simpler times. With selling of pies and cakes all the while tending to the house and the children, Bert feels less of a man being unemployed and comes to terms that Mildred has made the kids her main concern and not him. Boo frickin' hoo. Divorced, Mildred has custody of her two daughters Veda (Ann Blyth of Brute Force, The Great Caruso, The King's Thief, Kismet, Slander and The Helen Morgan Story) a snotty 16 year old social climbing and aspiring pianist with visions of a greater status quo and Kay (Jo Ann Marlowe of Yankee Doodle Dandy, Dangerous Intruder, Man from Rainbow Valley, A Scandal in Paris, Little Iodine and The Strange Woman) a bit of a tomboy playing in the dirt. Mildred's main goals is to win Veda's affection by lavishing this unruly brat with worldly good and attention of which Veda spurns every chance she gets, pointing out how common her mother is to be working at a restaurant as a lowly waitress... Anyone else want to drop the little princess out on her ass?? Bert picks up the kids for a weekend visit when little Kay get pneumonia and dies. I'm sure Bert didn't cause that to happen.

Jeez, father backed over the cat and just tore off.

Sicken with grief and guilt, Mildred throws herself into work where she and her supervisor Ida (Eve Arden of The Eve Arden Show, Anatony of a Murder, The Red Skelton Hour, The Mothers-In-Law and In Name Only) work to build a better restaurant into a chain of them for across the country, a deal to insure a fleet of Mildred's making their ways all over the freeways. Veda refuses to give an inch from her mother and mocks her precious gifts. Will Mildred and Veda ever become the mother and daughter Mildred deserves? Will Veda "accidentally" be shoved into an industrial wood chipper? Will Bert meet an Ernie?

A few points on this movie now.

Shirley Temple was originally considered for the part of Veda Pierce. Interestingly enough, Joan Crawford was a waitress and a saleswoman supporting herself before her chorus days let alone her acting days.

Author James M. Cain sent Joan a signed first edition of the original novel, inscribed read: To Joan Crawford, who brought Mildred Pierce to life just as I had always hoped she would be, and who has my lifelong gratitude. Not too shabby, eh?

Pipe down sweet cheeks, the menfolk are talking.

Hitchcock Week

Hello readers of this conglomerate of silly and mildly informative.  This week I thought we would enjoy some of that master of the macabre, Alfred Hitchcock.   As always with a known director I shall like to educate you all on some of the more obscure work that was before our time as well as the classics we know and love.   From his earliest work across the pond to the Universal Studios standings we will get to view films that are some of his more controversial to the sublime.   So stay alert, don't panic and above all else suspect everyone!  Toodles!

lalala, total vulnerable in the shower and death is lurking.

Douglas Sirk Week: Written on the Wind

Greeting readers and welcome to Day 2 of Douglas Sirk Week.  I would like to point out that I am not doing these ground breaking films in order so don’t go being confused.  Today I thought we would touch base on a disturbing look into alcoholism, jealousy, nymphomania and the overwhelming corruption of material gain.  No, we are not reviewing Dallas or Falcon Crest but good guesses all the way around. Instead we shall see the Technicolor creation of novelist Robert Wilder (Flamingo Road, The Big Country, A Stranger in My Arms and Sol Madrid) come to life before the big and little screen.  So grab your bourbon, sharpen your nails for a cat fight and prep a good right hook.  This is Written in the Wind.

William Kennedy's breakfast to work.

Are you looking for spoilers? Or are you soul-searching?

To begin at the beginning (also the best place to start) Jasper Hadley (Robert Keith of My Foolish Heart, The Wild One, Guys and Dolls, Just Across the Street and Love Me or Leave Me) has built his empire and town under the bubbling crude of Texas which just happens to look a bit like California but suspend disbelief and you will be fine.  His son Kyle (Robert Stack of The Tarnished Angels, The Gift of Love, The Scarface Mob, The Untouchables and Is Paris Burning) comes roaring back to the colonial mansion after an all-night drinking binge.  Damn near wrecking his roadster on the way in he spots in the upstairs window his best friend Mitch (Rock Hudson of Iron Man, Scarlet Angel, Sea Devils, Gun Fury, This Earth is Mine and Pillow Talk) with his arms draped over his wife Lucy (Lauren Bacall of To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, How to Marry a Millionaire and The Shootist).  Kyle staggers up the stairs making such a racket to wake enough dead for a Romero movie.  Startled awake Kyle’s sister Mareylee (Dorothy Malone of The Big Sleep, Two Guys from Texas, The Nevadan, Convicted and The Bushwackers) wakes to the sound of furniture being tossed about, a heated agreement followed by a gunshot. 

Anybody got a match?

From the exterior we see a figure shrouded in show stagger out of the mansion a collapses on the driveway.  Lucy faints as the camera then zooms up on a desk calendar telling us the day of Tuesday, November 6, 1966.   A slight fade into a flashback to the events that led us to this tragic end introduces us to legal secretary Lucy working for the Hadely company.   Kyle and Mitch work hand in hand and have been friends since their school days.  Kyle is jokingly claims to be envious of Mitch for his hard work and ability to get things done.  Jasper had all but adopted Mitch into the family and Kyle does not blame Mitch for his father’s shining approval of Mitch rather than the black sheep that Kyle is. Kyle seems completely open to Lucy as she is literally the only woman he could ever be moved by; given her lack of interest in his family’s wealth. 

  

Another character of interest is Marylee Hadley.  This little coy vixen purrs like a cat after a saucer of milk and she thinks Mitch is the end all saucer.  Like Kyle, Marylee is an excellent example of the bored ne’er-do-wells, the games they are willing to play and not be held accountable for the lives they can potentially ruin. 

Either these drapes go or I do!

I have just a few things to say on the technical aspect of this film.  The cinematography is brilliant with dolly track, steady hand held work and an occasional crane shot, it is a feast for the eyes.  The standard 35mm Spherical camera is the order of the day.  The context in which this film covers so many taboos under one roof really gives the characters scope.  Dorothy Malone has the best line when informed she is a filthy liar.  Her response is,”I’m filthy, period.”  A bit over top dramatized but a very gripping story.