Mildred Pierce on in 10 minutes!

Veda is a DL icon.

Money.

That's what you live for, isn't it?

Get out, before I kill you!

Of course data loungers would sympathize with fucking Veda.

I LOATHE the character of Veda, R4.

She's spoiled, arrogant, pretentious, and hateful.

Mildred should have pushed her down the stairs.

I never understood why Veda didn't stay married to that rich boy. Wouldn't that have given her the rich life style she wanted? Plus, he was cute.

Jack Carson- Wally, is pretty sexy in this movie.

[quote] I never understood why Veda didn't stay married to that rich boy.

Because she was a common, trash slut.

So was Mildred okay with her husband Bert fucking around with Mrs. Biederhof?

She didn't really seem to mind it.

"Mildred Pierce" is one of the most popular films shown on TCM by the number of times they've played it.

It is very entertaining and has something for everyone to enjoy. I love it.

[quote]They should have show this movie last Sunday, for Mother's Day.

They usually do

[quote]Mildred should have pushed her down the stairs.

Mildred should have wire hangered that bitch in utero

I always laugh at Bert's description of Veda.

[quote] Veda has to have a piano, and lessons, and fancy dresses so she can sit up on a platform, smirking her way through a piece and 5 year old with talent can play.

[quote] She plays the piano like I shoot pool.

Oh, the shade! I think he also calls her stuck-up, too. Lol.

You've never spoken of your "people." Where you came from.

What a bitch!

I accept this award from you.... and only.... youuuuuu.

My adoring fannssssss.....

Can a restaurant really get away with serving ONE THING?

Veda is so fun to watch that I find it hard not to cheer her on. Mildred's martyred mother act, like Stella Dallas', doesn't do much for me, but I still love the movie.

Veda has the most hilarious bitchy lines ever in this movie.

"Mother, you're a scream. Really you are. The next thing I know you'll be knitting little garments."

" My mother - a [italic]waitress![/italic]"

"You think just because you made a little money you can get a new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady! But you can't, because you'll never be anything but a common frump, whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing!"

[quote] I never understood why Veda didn't stay married to that rich boy. Wouldn't that have given her the rich life style she wanted?

He never married her, and his parents would never have let him, given that her mother was "a common frump." The furthest they were willing to go was to pay off Veda when she told them she was pregnant. They would have likely disinherited him if he had marriedher, and that would have gotten Veda nowhere.

Eve Arden is the best thing about this movie. I love her in anything but she's exceptional in Mildred Pierce.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Midlred hears Veda sing "The Oceana Roll" at the nightclub. Ann Blyth had a beautiful soprano, but she sang so prissily the rendition is even squarer than when Jane Powell sings the same song in "Two Weeks with Love." And yet the sailors in the nightclub go wild with appreciation for it--when a sailor wolf-whistles Blyth as she sings it, Crawford has the most hilarious stricken expression.

Bert is my favorite character in this movie.

R22 did you like her in season 4 of Alice?

R25 I never saw Alice beyond the first season.

She played a talk show host in one episode.

Veda wouldn't have pulled that shit with me.

[quote]After appearing in minor roles in two films under her real name, Eunice Quedens, she found that the stage offered her the same minor roles. By the mid 30s, one of these minor roles would attract notice as a comedy sketch in the stage play "Ziegfeld Follies". By that time, she had changed her name to Eve Arden, which she adopted while looking over some cosmetics and spotting the names "Evening in Paris" and "Elizabeth Arden".

I love how Veda looked down on Mildred, when Veda herself was nothing more than a common slut and was probably selling it.

You'll notice there's a bed in the backstage dressing room at Wally' joint. I think it's quite clear Veda is turning tricks there. Clearly the other woman sharing the dressing room is a very cheap looking gal (she's really great in her one scene here). I think Mildred is very much aware of what Veda is doing to make a living and it ain't singing!

My parents are from the dirt-poor eastern Kentucky hollers. They got out of there somehow, met in another city and beget me and my older sisters. Forged a respectful small town middle class life by being factory workers.

Because they moved north, we never looked or behaved like poor white trash. People always mistake me for a college-type, though I never attended one.

Veda wanted to be someone else. She was just as ambitious as her mother, but lacked the morals.

[quote]My favorite part is when Veda slaps Mildred's face!

Mine too.

Bert had a bangin' bod when he played Tarzan.

Bert verificatia of sizemeat?

Look at the movie again, R21. She got married to him.

I thought she married him as well.

I am not sure about this, but in order for her to play the baby card, I think the Code required that they be married. But I could be wrong.

MILDRED: He knows you and Ted want to get married?

VEDA: Want to get married? We ARE married. We were married on my birthday. l'm sorry, but it's done.

Paper checks... paper lottery tickets... much too fragile.

I love Eve Arden, I still listen to her in Our Miss Brooks (radio show), I used to watch the TV version when the reruns were show it was hilarious - she was great.

Were Mildred’s ears pierced? Her last was Pierce. I’m wondering if there is some connection?

[quote] Her last was Pierce. I’m wondering if there is some connection?

Well there was certainly no connection to me!

Mildred should have treated Veda like Joan treated Christina. Veda deserved to have the shit slapped out of her AND strangled on the living room rug. No wonder Bert liked Mrs Beathimoff.

I bet Joan and Eve bumped uglies on that set.

Joan did a great job in that movie, as did Ann Blyth, but that ending...

This is a really interesting interview with Ann about the movie, Joan, etc. - worth a watch.

Ann Blythe shilling the snack cake inspired by Veda.

It's on TCM again, although it will be on very late night or early morning, depending where you are.

Mildred Pierce will be showing at 1:45 am Pacific and 4:45 am Eastern.

It's worth waking up early for!

The Kate Winslet version is on HBOMax. I'm trying to decide if I want to watch it. It's supposed to follow the book more closely.

Jack Carson shined in this. He was in tons of films and television. I will never forget being impressed with him in Red Garters.

Was he nominated for an Oscar, R50?

I found the movie dreadfully recherche, n'est-ce pas?

R51, who am I? Robert Osborne? No clue.

Veda, you forgot to sign your name at R53 as well.

Dear R50/R53...

Mildred, by golly and gosh darnit gee! You're in danger, gal!

I never tire of "Mildred Pierce", it's got an excellent plot, a superb cast, and is expertly filmed.

I love a two-shot and "Mildred Pierce" is full of them. Even if you watched with the sound off you could easily follow the story, that's how every film should be.

Mildred's kicky little top hat in the divorce hearing scene is the highlight of Joan's entire career. Period.

[quote] Mildred's kicky little top hat in the divorce hearing scene is the highlight of Joan's entire career. Period.

And Veda slapped it right off her head!

Is the slap scene the one where Carol Ann gets smacked in the face by Joan, in Mommie Dearest?

I'll bet Joan loved smacking Carol Ann around.

I just recently watched it all the way through for the first time--happened to be clicking through the channels and it was just about to start. I thoroughly enjoyed it and what amazed me most was how much they packed into a 2 hour movie. We saw multiple stages of Mildred Pierce life coherently told in 2 hours. Nowadays, it would probably be 10 episodes on Netflix.

[quote] Nowadays, it would probably be 10 episodes on Netflix.

Five episode on HBOMax.

There are so many amazing things about this movie, R60.

Not the least of which is the fabulous Eve Arden. She is my favorite character in the movie, and I'd love to have a friend like her.

I would have put that ole Veda in her place.

The mini-series sucked ASS. Never could figure out why though. Kate was a much more realistic version of Mildred, Guy Pearce was as right for Monty as Zachary Scott was in the original version, and Evan Rachel Whatever was BORN to play Veda, but the series didn't coalesce into a work of art, or even good entertainment.

Maybe it was because Winslet's Mildred was as dumpy as the book's character, but she never displayed the inner fire and ambition that made her exceptional? Crawford's Mildred was reasonably down to Earth at the beginning of the 1945 version (though she went high-glamour as soon as she made some money) but bubbling underneath her character there was always this seething anger at what she had to deal with (lazy husband, bitchy daughter whom she worships inexplicably, working her ass off for every dollar).

Another thing the 1945 version did better was to combine Ida Corwin and Lucy Gessler into Eve Arden's Ida. They were very different characters, but both were good friends to Mildred and both were sharp, acerbic women (can't remember if Ida disliked Veda in the book, but Lucy made her contempt for Veda quite clear) but combining them streamlined the movie, and gave Eve Arden some great lines in the process!

That slap scene always gets me.

Watching "Veda" haul off and smack Joan Crawford in the face, is legendary!

I'm surprised that Joan didn't punch her in the face during the original take!!

In "Mildred Pierce" Joan plays a perfect amalgam/archetype of her original onscreen essence, the character that created her entire career starting in the late 1920s, namely that of a working class, downtrodden women who is scrappy and highly relatable who uses her skills as a woman to create a better, slightly more glamorous life for herself, but almost loses who she was in the process.

In that regard it's the truest Joan Crawford movie ever.

I'll "MARY!" myself.

It's on right now!

Part of EVE ARDEN DAY on TCM.

R9: Bruce Bennett was very good-looking man. I've never seen him in the Tarzan movies he did, but he was great in this and in, "Dark Passage". R22: "Careful, I bruise easy"

Bruce Bennett was totally hot and the perfect Bert Pierce.

He also lived to be one hundred years old and died in 2007!

Mildred should have run Veda down with the car she bought her. I could see a great tight shot on Mildreds face as you hear the car hit Veda. Then her face as she backs up and rolls over Vedas body again and again with the car.

Lol R72.

Bert would have done it.

He really hated Veda. Couldn't stand the bitch.

Veda is the one to root for, the same way that Joan is the one to root for in Mommie Dearest by the time she takes that ungrateful wench's role on the soap opera.

"Alligators have the right idea, they eat their young."

Mildred is on in an hour on TCM!

Omg! It's starting!

Did people hate on Ann Blythe after the movie came out?

I know it was just a character she was playing, but I can't stand her!

That would have been dreadfully recherche, n'est-ce pas?

Omg! THE scene was just shown.

Well, they were mean to Ann on Designing Women, r78...

OP posted this on May 16th, 2021, is Mildred Pierce still on?

Isn't it always, r82?

I'm always on point, bitches.

If there was a restaurant like Mildred's in Los Angeles I would happily eat there. It's casual enough to have car hop service, but the clientele dresses nicely. It's just a bit more casual than a destination restaurant, but with decent food...and they give you a lot of french fries!

You are absolutely ridiculous, R85.

And btw, no one dresses up any more.

Americans are slobs, and dress like pigs.

[quote]You are absolutely ridiculous, [R85].

I'm talking about the characters in the movie, asshole.

R86, try some CBD oil, hon.

R86, Get out before I kill ya'!

Did Joan hate Ann Blyth?

Joan seems the type to be jealous of her.

^ Actually, Joan mentored Ann, inviting her into her dressing room for private sessions between takes.

After slapping the little, loser bitch, I'd have left a permanent footprint in Veda's ass and disowned her. I wouldn't have waited until she murdered anyone. Spare the rod and spoil the child. This is why the world is full of know-it-all, self-centered, moronic, fuck sticks.

"My mother, a waitress". Yeah, I'd have beat the shit out of that brat! For her own good, and for my own satisfaction. Why have a kid like that?

Reply 79, that is funny!!!

Reply 5, you are right. Veda was like a Slinky toy. Not worth much, but fun to push down the stairs.

Eve Arden was great in this film. The voice of reason.

This move hits home a bit. My mom worked very hard, out of love for her kids, and still wound up with an ungrateful daughter, like Veda. Mom was to lenient in my sister's upbringing. Later on, she didn't make that same mistake, with me. Sometimes, being strict, is a form of love.

Blyth also said that in her screen test for director Michael Curtiz, Crawford agreed to act with her, and "That was a big plus. So it just clicked. Eveything about the scene we did worked." Unlike many actors, Blyth found Curtiz easy to work with, and said she was very fond of him. She worked with him again in "The Helen Morgan Story."

[quote] you'll never be anything but a common frump, whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing!"

But wasn't it Mildred who took in washing or did she do baking for the neighbors?

How perfect is this moment with even the ripped check flying in perfect time with the slap?

"Miss Crawford's heavy breathing was certified as acting when she won an Academy Award for her performance here." -- 5001 Nights at the Movies. Old Pauline could be devastating when she limited herself to a few well-chosen words.

Those aren't shoulder pads, those are two ironing boards strapped to Joan's armpits 😂

Jack Carson was hot.

Jack Carson had a fat face.

Jack Carson was hot.

Jack Carson's fat face was uglying up the place playing an ugly fat-faced loudmouth in 'Star Is Born'.

R99 Pauline was a contrarian cunt who proudly never watched a movie more than once. How anyone takes her seriously as a critic is beyond me….

"Pauline was a contrarian cunt" and I can't forgive her for her unnecessarily cruel remarks to David Lean.

Pauline Kael is completely forgotten.

I don't like her but she sent me a nondescript handwritten note a long time ago.

I wonder if her signature has monetary value?

Starts in about 15 minutes on TCM.

About to start on TCM.

I'm Veda Ann Borg. I'm in this movie too. I play Miriam Ellis and I hate Joan Crawford as much as the fake Veda.

I made a post in this that keeps getting liked about Kael. Two years later and having fully read her books of criticism, I completely take back what I said about her. She was on the money more than not (and when she wasn’t, she was mostly funny about it), and correct about Crawford as an actress. Or rather, non-actress. She’s truly outacted by every single supporting player in what is supposed to be HER movie.

I disagree, r112. I think Joan is excellent in this stylized noir-ish drama. I agree she's often not the most organic actress in some films, but in "Mildred Pierce" I think she fulfills the demands of the role and film expertly.

Yes, I am gay.

[quote]She’s truly outacted by every single supporting player in what is supposed to be HER movie.

She had screen presence, r112, she could get away with movie star acting. Didn't matter how well a supporting player did, your eyes are on her.

Ann seems to be channeling Joan in that downmarket Hostess Crumb Cakes commercial.

Mildred Fierce is better