Mildred Pierce (1945)

All Critics (33) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (30) | Rotten (6) | DVD (15)

The production, mainly because of Michael Curtiz's direction, is unimaginative and badly hoked-up.

August 31, 2012 Full Review

Manny Farber

The New Republic

Top Critic

All this is good melodrama and fair entertainment, but it is much closer to the waltz-time schmalz of Kathleen Norris than to the fox-trot brass of James M. Cain.

July 25, 2011 Full Review

TIME Magazine

Top Critic

The archetypal Joan Crawford movie.

October 17, 2007 Full Review

Don Druker

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

A class feature, showmanly produced by Jerry Wald and tellingly directed by Michael Curtiz.

October 17, 2007 Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

The film is a chilling demonstration of the fact that, in a patriarchal society, when a woman steps outside the home the end result may be disastrous.

June 24, 2006 Full Review

Time Out

Top Critic

Joan Crawford is playing a most troubled lady, and giving a sincere and generally effective characterization of same.

March 25, 2006 Full Review

New York Times

Top Critic

Joan Crawford gives one of her most iconic (Oscar-winning) performances in Michael Curtiz's quintessential film noir and woman's picture of the 1940s.

March 25, 2009 Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

An undisputed classic.

October 17, 2007 Full Review

Film4

A hearty genre pic fraught with tense social/sexual anxieties.

August 7, 2006 Full Review

Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

A protective mother's love leads to familial tragedy, and you know what you're in for when mommy dearest happens to be the incomparable Joan Crawford.

June 15, 2005 Full Review

Jeremiah Kipp

Slant Magazine

Though all of its craft is accomplished, Mildred Pierce never gets deep under one's skin the way it ought to.

June 15, 2005 Full Review

Jeremiah Kipp

Slant Magazine

...isn't quite in the same class of noir film as Double Indemnity or The Postman Always Rings Twice, but it's still a good mystery and a good character drama.

June 12, 2005 Full Review

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

It shows its age in some scenes...yet it survives them all with its riveting performances.

June 12, 2005 Full Review

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

Great middle-period Crawford, strong story

October 23, 2004

Steve Crum

Kansas City Kansan

Most of the story has nothing to do with crime, and is instead about the efforts of Crawford’s character to better herself (she starts a popular restaurant) so she can remain in the good graces of her relentlessly snobbish daughter. It is a clever b

October 14, 2004

Douglas Pratt

DVDLaser

• 1. Veda Pierce: Are you sure you want to know?
  2. Mildred Pierce: Yes.
  3. Veda Pierce: Then I'll tell you. With this money, I can get away from you.
  4. Mildred Pierce: Veda...
  5. Veda Pierce: From you and your chickens, pies and kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack and its cheap furniture. And this town and its dollar-days and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls.
  6. Mildred Pierce: I think I'm really seeing you for the first time in my life and you're cheap and horrible.
  7. Veda Pierce: You think just because you've made a little money, you can get some new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady. But you can't. You'll never be anything but a common frump whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing. With this money I can get away from all the rotting, stinking thing that makes me think of this place or you!
  8. Mildred Pierce: Veda!
  – Submitted by Ralph T (19 months ago)
• 1. Ida: Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young.
  – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)

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