MILDRED PIERCE
Mildred Pierce is a working class woman struggling to make ends meet after she splits from her unemployed husband. To care for her two young daughters, she takes a day job as a waitress and moonlights as an independent baker, selling cakes and pies to local restaurants. When her youngest child, the sweet-natured Kay, dies of pneumonia, Mildred devotes all her time and energy to her spoiled teenage daughter Veda. With the help of local businessman Wally Fay and down-on-his-luck playboy Monty Beragon, she opens her own restaurant. It proves to be such a success that she soon expands it into a string of eateries in the Los Angeles area. But nothing she does pleases the willful Veda, not even marrying Beragon for his family name. It all comes crashing down on the night of Veda’s eighteenth birthday, when Mildred loses her empire and Monty is mysteriously murdered. And Mildred is faced with having to make one last sacrifice.
The Viennale also shows the series by Todd Haynes in three screenings of Mildred Pierce - Part 1 & 2, Mildred Pierce - Part 3 and Mildred Pierce - Part 4 & 5.
- Joan Crawford - Mildred Pierce
- Ann Blyth - Veda Pierce
- Jack Carson - Wally Fay
- Zachary Scott - Monty Beragon
- Eve Arden - Ida Corwin
- Bruce Bennett - Bert Pierce
- William Faulkner
- Ranald MacDougall
- Catherine Turney (beide ungenannt) nach dem Roman von James M. Cain
- Ernest Haller
- Oliver S. Garretson
- Daniel Weisbart
- Max Steiner
- Anton Grot
- Milo Anderson
Hollywood Classics
