The Criterion Collection: Mildred Pierce UHD

Director: Michael Curtiz
Screenplay: Ranald MacDougall
Starring: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Bruce Bennett
Country: US
Running Time: 111 minutes
Year: 1945

Released a year after Billy Wilder’s seminal Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, also based on a novel by James M. Cain, is a colossal disappointment. Criterion have released both films on UHD this month and seeing them close together just highlights how extraordinary Wilder’s film was, and remains so. Mildred Pierce should have been its equal.

The opening scenes contained promise of something daring and sophisticated. Mildred’s husband (Zachary Scott) has been murdered at their beach house and she quickly frames her supposed friend, Jack Carson. The beach house is contrived to be a superb, nightmarish set of shadows and stairs. Michael Curtiz was no slouch. Casablanca is pure magic and the setup for Mildred Pierce is powerful stuff. That is until it quickly grinds to a halt in an interview room at the police station. Mildred relates her story in flashback; the cops have fingered her first husband, Bruce Bennett, for the murder and she needs to control the narrative.

Well at least someone is making an effort, because the narrative we’re watching has already run out of steam. Mildred Pierce is a leaden, confused mess. The worst kind of safe studio-pap the likes of Double Indemnity was leaving in the dust.

Cain’s novel is a psychological drama; the murder, the one bit of grit in the thing, was contrived for the film. It was never part of the story that Cain wanted to tell and you can see how it’s awkwardly bolted on. Of course, maybe I’m being unfair and, once expectations are reset, we should let the film unfold on its own terms. There are some great melodramas. This isn’t one of them.

Aside from the awful pacing that makes 2 hours feel like 3, all of the characters are appalling people. Every one of them. Mildred sees her first husband being taken into questioning and protests how lovely he is. The very next flashback scene shows he is actually awful. It was such a wrench, I really thought it might be a sly device to show how Mildred is twisting perception, but Citizen Kane this is not.

Mildred’s eldest daughter, Vida (Ann Blyth), is a horrible, manipulative character. Her second husband is no better than the first, such that we really don’t care a jot that he’s dead. Her friend Wally (Carson) has the best dialogue but is an oafish brute whose clumsy attempts at ‘romance’ would get him arrested anywhere except 1930s Hollywood. Yes, I know it’s 1945, but no-one involved in this production noticed at the time.

It’s such a shame because the sub-text is potent, cynical stuff. That women are eternally underappreciated. That the American dream might be a nightmare if you’re not male. Mildred, despite her first husband’s nasty insinuation to the contrary, becomes a powerful, self-made business woman. Her determination to make a better life for her kids is a singular force of nature. The point of the story is that she is surrounded by dreadful people who take it in turns to take advantage of her, or abuse her.

Rather than a typical thriller, the tension and sadness is all played on Joan Crawford’s tight-lipped, luminous face (literally so, thanks to the exceptionally soft focus) earning her an Academy Award. It’s the delivery of the film around her that frustrates; relying on melodramatic tropes to power the storm that weathers poor Mildred might have seemed logical at the time. It dates the film though, making it clumsy where it should be sure-footed.

Maybe surrounding Crawford with such utter drivel highlighted how brilliant she could be. If that sounds like a back-handed compliment, I’m afraid that’s the best I can offer.

VIDEO

Judge Mildred Pierce on the quality of the 4K transfer and it’s fabulous. Details and definition are beyond reproach. The opening scene is an excellent example of light and shadow contrasting wonderfully. However, like the film itself, the cinematography chooses a bland path thereafter. It’s an old fashioned looking thing. Everytime Joan Crawford looks at the camera, the focus is so soft it blooms to an impossibly hokey effect. Just as the narrative dulls the edges of what could have been an American epic, the photography distracts unnecessarily from its star.

EXTRA FEATURES

Despite my misgivings, the film is a much-loved classic and is possibly Joan Crawford’s finest performance. It is worth recognising what the film could have been, but whatever your take on the film, this is a great set from Criterion. The extras unpick the history of the story, its meaning and the extraordinary Crawford’s genuine star-power.

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New 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 Marc Huestis and conducted by film historian Eddie Muller at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco
• Segment from a 1969 episode of the Today show featuring Mildred Pierce novelist James M. Cain
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith