"Deceit, money lust, sexual jealousy,violence--all the elements of James M. Cain's chillingly nasty novelhave been preserved in Michael Curtiz's Mildred Pierce. Ostensiblypresented as a whodunit in the grand film noir tradition, Mildred Pierceis actually an indictment of a woman determined to overcome theimpotence of her middle-class existence. Deserted by her husband andchided by her eldest child for her 'common' values, Mildred channels herculinary talents towards an amazingly prosperous restaurant career. Inher Academy Award-winning performance, Joan Crawford plays the ambitioushousewife whose keen business sense and desire for financial securityare matched only by her obsession to buy everything - including awretchedly spoiled vixen of a daughter and a disenchanted dilettantelover on the dole. "Stylistically considered,Mildred Pierce incorporates all the visual elements of Hollywood'sclassic '40s dark cinema; compositions assume a fractured, threateningmood via the use of oblique camera angles, harsh linear formations, andbrooding light. Narratively speaking, however, Curtiz's film moreclosely approximates a melodrama with the mother-daughter conflict atthe forefront. As the story unfolds, Mildred and Veda's precariousrelationship deteriorates into a vicious and hateful rivalry, theintensity of which precipitates the calamitous denouement." --L.A.Thielen