DECADES GRAB BAG: Mildred Pierce (1945)

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of murder, sex work. We’ve jumped ahead to 1945 to tackle the question of whether it’s possible for a movie to have only one likeable character but still be compelling. The verdict - still unclear. This is a bizarre movie, down to the doctor who tries to save a dying young child trying to gain sympathy for having to drive all the way out to the house in the first place. Only one main character is likeable, and fortunately Joan Crawford is up to the task with the role. In fact, for a melodrama with more of a premise than a well-rounded plot and wildly uneven acting, Joan Crawford is the glue that holds all of this together. We’re watching the Mother’s Day classic, 1945’s Mildred Pierce on Have a Good Movie! You can email us with feedback at [e-mail], or you can connect with us on BlueSky! If you like the podcast, please subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcatcher, and tell your friends. Intro and outro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive. Excerpts taken from the main title to the film Mildred Pierce, written and composed by Max Steiner. Copyright 1945, 2005 Turner Entertainment Co., Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Excerpt taken from the main title to the film Rebel Without a Cause, written and composed by Leonard Rosenman. Copyright 1955 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.