Mildred Pierce

Mildred Pierce, an American film made in 1945, focus on the unhealthy relationship between Mildred and her daughter Veda. The film begins like a suspense movie: we hear a gunshot and then see a woman running away from the crime scene. Mildred’s second husband, Monte, is found dead in the house. As Mildred recounts her story at the police station, the tragedy of the family unfolds as we get closer to the murderer.

Mildred’s first marriage is not very happy. Her family lives in a stereotypical house in Glendale, and she has to bake pies and cakes to support her family. This unsatisfactory married life makes Mildred and her first husband Bert quarrel a lot, with Bert criticizing Mildred’s way of spoiling their daughters and Mildred blaming Bert for his affair. Eventually, they decide to separate and Mildred has to secretly wait tables to pay for the expensive piano and dancing lessons of her daughters.

However, Mildred’s older daughter Veda soon finds out about Mildred’s job and insults her mother of degrading their family. In order to get her daughter’s approval, Mildred decides to open her own restaurant and it is an immediate success. But still, her effort is not appreciated by Veda, who yearns not only for wealth, but also for higher social status. She even secretly gets married with a boy from upper class and blackmails his family by faking pregnancy. When Mildred hears about her daughter’s fraud, she tries to cut her daughter off and run away. But when she comes back and finds that Veda works as a flirty singer in a restaurant, Mildred is determined to bring Veda back by marrying her Monte, a man of Noble heritage who has spent all of his fortunes, so Veda will no longer be ashamed of the social class of their family. But Monte and Veda’s luxurious life soon disrupt Mildred’s business. Facing bankruptcy, Mildred confronts Monte at the beach house but finds out about the affair of Monte and Veda. Desperate and heartbroken, Mildred leaves the house while Veda killed Monte. Though Mildred helps Veda to cover up her crime,  the police still finds out about it and arrests Veda.
Apparently, this film can be categorized as melodrama. Before the actual story begins, the roaring sea and heavy rain already set the tragic tune for the entire film. The film focus primarily on the mother-daughter relationship of Mildred and Veda, which is purely built on Mildred’s sacrifice for her daughter. This is very similar to the Stella Dallas and Haha no Kyoku, except that Mildred and her daughter’s relationship is much worse than those in the other two films. Mildred’s endless tolerance and sacrifice form a sharp contrast with her daughter’s growing desire throughout the film. Mildred’s character is simple: she lives for her daughter Veda. Wally Fay once comments on Mildred: “The reason behind your decision...is usually Veda. ” Instead of teaching her daughter how to be a real lady, Mildred turns her love into pure materialism. Mildred’s hard work is always accompanied by Veda’s ungratefulness and despise. At the very beginning, Mildred already finds out about her daughter’s materialistic nature. However, she dares not to confront her daughter as she innocently thinks this will not be a problem if she works hard enough and satisfies Veda’s desire for money. Mildred is a  typical melodramatic heroine, innocent and emotion-driven. In the scene that she slaps Veda, Mildred seems extremely angry at Veda at one moment, but after slapping her, she immediately hugs her and becomes loving and caring again. This sharp shift of emotion is representative in many melodramatic works and always arouses mixed feelings from the audience. When Veda is in Mildred’s arm, only the audience can see her devilish eye expression, a sign that she lies to her mother again. Scenes like this throughout the film make audience anxious, but there is no way that Mildred can realize the truth until the end. Mildred’s ignorance and Veda’s deceits accumulates as the plot develops and eventually cause the emotional outbreak at the very end.

Another typical melodramatic theme in this film is the struggle with money and class. Without questions, Veda is the most representative character. She detests her family’s working class background and yearns for the luxurious life of the upper class. When she finds out about her mother’s new job, she immediately gives her mother’s uniform to the housemaid just to insult her mother of degrading their family. Even when Mildred become wealthy, Veda is not satisfied by the status of her family. According to Veda, her mother’s money is “money smell of grease”, though everything she has is given by her mother. Although Veda is the younger generation, she embraces the traditional value of the “old money” while her mother, the older generation, represents the “American Dream” with her self-made success. Of course, Veda is not born to be vain and snobbish; her mother definitely plays a role in her coming-of-being. Although Mildred doesn’t explicitly shows her desire to live as the aristocrats, she puts all her expectation on her daughter and hopes her to become an elegant lady. Mildred always says, “I have plan for Veda,” “She doesn’t turn out to be what I want her to be.” Just as Veda has said at the end of movie,  “It’s your fault I’m the way I’m.” If Mildred can teach her daughter the correct values instead of buying her expensive dresses, Veda could end up differently. After all, Mildred and her daughter’s tragedy result not from others, but from Mildred’s own decision.