MILDRED PIERCE
Of the catalog titles getting a Blu-ray release this week the biggest one is the Criterion Collection debut of Michael Curtiz’s 1945 noir melodrama Mildred Pierce. James M. Cain’s 1941 novel has had a few iterations, most recently Todd Haynes’ 2011 miniseries. While people bring up the names Hitchcock or Spielberg when talking about great filmmakers, Curtiz’s name is sorely overlooked.
Applying his craft in one different genre after another, including Angels with Dirty Faces, The Adventures of Robin Hood and Casablanca, this adaptation is a great character study with Joan Crawford as a Depression-era housewife whose life is falling apart. Curtiz’s direction of Crawford is to be applauded but more so is the film’s noir aspects which opens with a murder committed (not found in Cain’s novel) and flashes back to Mildred’s tortured story.
The Blu-ray release brings the bells and whistles with an archived documentary about Joan Crawford (perfect viewing in anticipation for FX’s Feud miniseries), separate archived interviews with Crawford and James M. Cain, plus a new conversation with critics Molly Haskel and Robert Polito as they discuss the original novel and film interpretation.
