The story concerns the domestic life of Mildred (formerly) Pierce. A middle aged, yet beautiful mother of two daughters named Kay, a tomboy and Veda, a social status obsessed teen. The movie opens with Mildred's second husband being shot, as Mildred runs from his beach house and finds her childhood friend Wally at the bar, who she then tries to frame in front of the police. The police determine her first husband is the murderer and as Mildred protests, she recalls her life in a flashback, revealing the plot of the film.
"Mildred Pierce" though valued for being a culturally significant film is often criticized for its portrayal of mother-daughter relationships. The way that Veda and Mildred interact with each other is such an exaggeration of a rebellious teenager that it taps into the idea of excess found within melodramatic media. This sort of interpersonal relationship also plays a large part in representing melodrama through politics. Released in 1945, "Mildred Pierce" acted as a tool to boost the spirits of women during wartime, who had taken up jobs, as well as promote the American dream. Melodrama presents the hero and the villain very clearly, and "Mildred Pierce" makes a political statement by doing so. Mildred takes up working as a lowly waitress after losing her husband and her money and works her way up the ladder eventually owning her own chain of diners. Veda, her daughter who represents sloth and cheats others to gain money, resents her mother for working and feels as though her social status is tarnished by not only her mother's job but her past. Veda is interested in fine arts in European culture, which is connected to the sentiment of old European money owned by tycoons in America. Veda becomes a cabaret singer and ultimately falls in love with her mother's ex husband Monte Beragon, a Spanish aristocrat with a stereotypical "villain" mustache. Though "Mildred Pierce" presents shocking scenes with flourishing musical tracks, the over-characterization of everyone in the film is the strongest argument for it to be considered melodrama in my mind.
I also thought it was quite funny to read one of the first reviews that appears when searching the film is by Critic Jeramiah Kipp in 2005 which reads, Mildred Pierce is melodramatic trash, constructed like a reliable Aristotelian warhorse where characters have planted the seeds of their own doom in the first act, only to have grief-stricken revelations at the climax. Directed by studio favorite Michael Curtiz in German Expressionistic mode, which doesn't quite go with the California beaches and sunlight but sets the bleak tone of domestic film noir, and scored by Max Steiner with a sensational bombast that's rousing even when it doesn't match the quieter, pensive mood of individual scenes, Mildred Pierce is professionally executed and moves at a brisk clip." ( Kipp, Jeremiah. Slant, magazine, film review, 2005. Last accessed: February 8, 2008)
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