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Joan Crawford and Zachary Scott in 'Mildred Pierce'
What makes a good mother? If Mildred Pierce (1945) puts forth any opinion on the matter, it's probably that a good mother shouldn’t try to bribe her children for love. Yet the titular character does just that, and for one most undeserving child. What ensues is tragedy in the truest, i.e., Aristotelian, sense: Mildred Pierce has good traits, perhaps, but her actions lead to the downfall of her family and, inevitably, murder. The question is, is Mildred guilty of misguided ambition, or is she simply a bad mother?
The film, directed by Michael Curtiz and based on the pulp novel by James M. Cain, features memorable performances its main actors, as well as one of the most melodramatic film noir scripts ever filmed. In the beginning, Mildred (Joan Crawford), a high society lady--evident from her mansion, jewels, and her luscious fur coat--is called to the police station for questioning in the murder of her second husband.
In flashback, Mildred narrates her humbler beginnings. Years ago, the Pierce family consisted of Mildred, housewife; Bert (Bruce Bennett), her recently unemployed husband; elder daughter Veda (Ann Blyth), obsessed with high fashion and upper-class life; and the somewhat neglected tomboy Kay (Jo Ann Marlowe). One afternoon, Bert chastises Mildred for spoiling Veda and neglecting Kay, who is in his mind "twice the girl that Veda is". When he finds out that Mildred ordered a new dress for Veda, he accuses Mildred of trying to buy her love. Mildred is convinced that she can make it on her own, selling pies and cakes for extra money, and besides, she doesn't like how Bert spends so much time with the widow down the street.* So, in what must be one of the most efficient (and narratively convenient) breakups ever, Mildred and Bert decide to separate.
Although Veda certainly has ideas about class, it's clear that Mildred also yearns for the trappings of respectability. She wants music lessons, dance lessons, and better clothes for the children--and a servant would be nice too. Later, Mildred overhears Veda complaining that her new dress smells cheap and is juvenile, and that she "wouldn't be seen dead in [the] rag". Instead of prompting Mildred to give a well-deserved smack to the ungrateful trollop, this makes her ponder her financial situation--as if this were the first time she realised that maybe the money from pastries would've been better used on bills than a frivolity.
Being inexperienced for most kinds of work, Mildred becomes a waitress at a diner, much to Veda’s embarrassment and scorn. But Mildred soon sees that money from waiting tables is not enough to support her family, pay the bills, and--most importantly--pay for the lifestyle that she wants. She enlists the help of friend and real estate agent Wally Fay (Jack Carson) in opening a restaurant, which quickly becomes a success. At the same time, she starts a romance with idle, old-money Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott), who enchants her with his charm, and Veda with his aristocratic tastes.
Unexpectedly, Kay dies of pneumonia, but Mildred’s grief doesn’t last long (barely a scene, in fact); the American Dream has come true for her at last. Within a few years, Mildred’s Fine Foods becomes a franchise, enjoying the patronage of the respectable middle class. Mildred’s enormous financial success means that she can buy Veda all the haute dresses she wanted, and even a car. With all this, though, Veda is still not satisfied. She tries to extort money from another family in order to “get away from...everything that smells of grease". Mildred's wealth affords her the trappings of economic status, but she can’t hide the fact that she had to work for it, which Veda finds degrading: “You think just because you made money, you can turn yourself into a lady. But you can't. You'll never be anything but a common frump!”
Mildred and Veda’s vanity leads to their ruin. Veda can’t stand the fact that her mother is a businesswoman--which doesn't prevent her from accepting gifts or wearing nice clothes, of course--and Mildred desperately wants Veda’s love, not recognising that Veda cannot love her unconditionally, as Kay did. If Mildred were a better sort of mother, the film asks, wouldn’t she realise that she can’t and shouldn’t buy her child’s love? But vanity is the root of Mildred’s many errors of judgment. She is persuaded by the surface qualities of people, rather than their depths; she cannot distinguish what’s real amongst the fakery. She sees Veda’s charm and effusiveness, and Monte’s exotic good looks and wit, but didn’t see Bert’s innate nobility or Kay’s good nature.
After the case is closed, Mildred joins Bert outside the police station in an affirmation that the ex-husband was right and noble all along. Moreover, only the men in the film, such as Wally, Bert, and to an extent Monte, seem to possess the clear-seeing rationality that Mildred supposedly doesn’t have.** The moral of the story is that that women can’t make it in the real world on their own, and a woman who tries to have a career and a family is doomed to fail spectacularly. Although the story skewers misguided parenting and the empty pursuit of worldly goods, it’s really just another film that puts a woman in her place. Don’t take Mildred Pierce too seriously, though: steeped in artifice, it has drama without passion, grief without resonance--just like a good B-movie ought to be.
*I haven't read the book, but I believe there is a gay subtext here that was censored.
** Mildred’s friend Ida (Eve Arden) is an exception. She’s the self-proclaimed sort of woman men don’t marry, i.e., they think of her as a sister, not as a sexual being. Although Wally taunts her repeatedly, she has a smart mouth herself, and is the only genuinely funny character in the movie. She's also the counterpoint to Mildred, telling her to forget about Veda: "Crocodiles have the right idea--they eat their young."
This post is pure speculation, but if you don't want to know any potential spoilers for The Dark Knight (just in case), do not read any further. I mean it.
Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes
Note: The image above is taken from a press conference for Harvey Dent. You can view it at /film.
If you're a blockbuster movie lover, and/or a Batman/comic book fan like me, you've probably seen the latest trailer for The Dark Knight. I've watched it quite a few times since Sunday--yes, I am a geek--and something about it keeps bugging me. Namely, it is the brief shot of the Joker throwing Rachel Dawes off a rooftop:
At first, I thought, 'Well, Batman will just swoop down and catch her.' But then I read the interview with Aaron Eckhart in the L.A. Times. I noticed that Eckhart says something a little worrisome: "...Harvey Dent has an extremely strong sense of justice. His fiancée is killed. He's horribly injured. But he is still true to himself."
It's possible that he's talking about a fiancée who existed before the current Dark Knight time frame. (The movie's not following established continuity, so I doubt that he's talking about Gilda Dent either.) The way Eckhart phrases it all in present tense makes me think that he's talking about Rachel. In addition, Chris Nolan movies, in my opinion, suffer from a paucity of good female characters, as well as a few questionable casting choices in women's roles. When I consider all this, it wouldn't surprise me if Rachel really will be killed off.
Does this mean that Rachel might be about to join all the other women in comicdom who've been afflicted by Women in Refrigerators syndrome? The phrase "women in refrigerators", coined by Gail Simone, refers to the trend of women in comics--usually superheroes or love interests--dying to further and develop male-centric plots.
In the trailer, Rachel tells Bruce to not make her "the only hope for a normal life". If that is indeed what Bruce does, Rachel dying might make Batman and Two-Face's crimefighting more personal than it already is/would be. But it's hardly necessary, especially in the case of Batman--he has more than enough motivation. It might help emphasise the parallels between the men, and more significantly, also provide a reason to turn Two-Face against Batman, but is it worth making the only major female character in the reboot thus far into street splatter?
It would have been interesting if Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent were already friends or acquaintances (the way they are sometimes depicted in other media, such as some comics and the animated series) by the beginning of The Dark Knight. Unfortunately, I'm hard-pressed to think of many mainstream superhero movies where male friendship drives the narrative or provides an impetus the way that dead or imperilled love interests do. Let's hope that Rachel survives. A series this promising deserves a good female character (or two, or three...).
Felicity Huffman in Transamerica
Transamerica (2005) is a surprisingly conventional, but not bad, movie. Felicity Huffman won kudos as well as awards playing pre-op male-to-female transsexual Sabrina (Bree) Claire Osbourne. To anyone familiar with American road movies, the movie treads familiar ground. It begins when Bree finds out that she has a seventeen-year-old son, Toby (Kevin Zegers), when he calls her to bail him out of jail. Posing as a Christian missionary, Bree picks up Toby--at the behest of her therapist, not because she wants him in her life--and the pair embark on a cross-country trip to Los Angeles. Toby doesn't know it, but Bree must make it back in time to have her operation.
Soon, Bree learns that Toby has been doing recreational drugs and working as a hustler. It's clear that Toby is open-minded and desperately wants to meet his father, but Bree can't bring herself to tell Toby that she is transsexual, or more importantly, that she is his father. In a movie like this, all is of course revealed eventually, but not before it goes through a few requisite road movie tropes, including a supposed peyote shaman who steals Bree and Toby's car and money, and a Navajo trucker named Calvin (in a genteel performance from Graham Greene) who helps them get back on course.
Much of the plot development and humour come from how Bree and Toby are foils for each other. They are similarly dysfunctional because of their respective family problems, which are revealed during stops in the road trip, but Bree’s conservative personality often clashes with that of the more open-minded son. Bree wants to be inconspicuous; she is "stealth", i.e., presents herself as a biological woman, to everyone except for transgendered acquaintances and her therapist. Indeed, when Toby discovers that Bree is transsexual, he says that she’s “not a freak, just a liar”. Bree takes offence, however, when Toby questions why a transsexual would belong to a church. "My body may be a work in progress," she says angrily, "But there is nothing wrong with my soul."
In part because of the two main characters' fringe identities, one interesting thing about Transamerica is its depiction of gender roles, and how both Bree and Toby display stereotypically feminine traits. Bree may have been born male, but she acts exceedingly female; even her tastes in clothing and home décor--lots of pastels and florals--are old-fashioned and feminine. Moreover, when an attraction develops between her and Calvin, her voice and body language become almost embarrassingly coquettish.
On the other hand, Toby’s delicate and dimpled prettiness underscores his vulnerability, as well as his femininity. After the car is stolen, one of the first things he does, with quiet ease, is find a john. Later, when he realises that he’s become attached to Bree, he tells her, "I'll marry you if you want," even though she’s given no indication of any romantic or sexual interest in him. In fact, Toby often acts with his sexuality, even when doing so may be inappropriate; he deals with difficulties the only way he knows.
The movie shows its melodramatic roots after Calvin drops the pair off at Bree's parents' home. Bree's parents, especially her mother (played to shellacked perfection by Fionnula Flanagan), do not accept her lifestyle, but her younger sister, who's dysfunctional in her own way, is more sympathetic. After a few painful scenes of family drama and hysterics, the family reconciles, but only long enough for Toby to flee.
With Toby gone, Bree makes it to Los Angeles for her operation. Afterward, she confides to her therapist that her heart "hurts". She may be talking about an unexpected feeling of loss following the operation, or the fact that she became close to her son despite initially wanting nothing to do with him. The statement is ambiguous, maybe because Bree herself is not sure of its source.
Given its many issues, the most problematic thing about Transamerica is that Bree isn't developed enough for a main character, and thus, she never rises above the ho-hum plot. Her little quirks don't make her interesting, though Huffman does a good job for such a scant part. One thing I still cannot decide is whether Transamerica should be criticised for being unadventurous and sticking to clichés, or if it ought to be commended because the protagonist is unremarkable, and thus, not 'different' from her non-gender-bending counterparts. In other words, is a conservative transsexual protagonist in a conventional film the sign of a gimmick, or progress?
Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson in 'Rebecca'
When asked what their favourite Hitchcock movies are, most people will name Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window, and even The Birds; but once in a while someone says "Rebecca". Yet Rebecca (1940), based on Daphne DuMaurier's classic novel, has the distinction of being the only Hitchcock-directed film to win a Best Picture Academy Award, and it also marks the first film for which Hitchcock was nominated for Best Director. If the film is relatively underrated today, it may be because of its Gothic themes and depiction of 'unnatural' sexual longing. In this way, it's somewhat similar to another underappreciated Hitchcock movie, Shadow of a Doubt
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*Mild spoilers below*
I love revenge narratives, in both books and movies. For this reason, I'm a fan of Korean director Park Chan-wook's 'Vengeance Trilogy', which comprises Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Sympathy For Lady Vengeance (2005). Although I believe Oldboy to be the best of the three, each film has its unique brand of revenge: Mr. Vengeance is the most ruthlessly bloody, Oldboy is brooding yet operatic, and Lady Vengeance is both baroque and tightly controlled. Lady Vengeance is also the only film in the trilogy with a female protagonist
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Angela Bassett as Tina Turner
Before movies like Ray and Walk the Line, there was a Oscar-nominated musical biopic called What's Love Got to Do With It (1994). The film, based on Tina Turner's personal life and career, made a splash at the time, but it's relatively little-seen these days. The film was noted for its dramatic depiction of Tina's rise to stardom and her tempestuous--ultimately abusive--marriage with Ike Turner. Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne give incendiary performances in their respective roles as Tina and Ike, and both were nominated for multiple awards, including Academy Awards
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Hello there! I plan to use this blog to post and discuss the roles of women and girls in films--both in front of, and behind, the camera. My tastes are varied, so I'll not limit the posts to new Hollywood movies. Expect to read about new releases, older movies on DVD, foreign movies, and animated movies. I'll probably talk about specific women in the business as well--but not in a celebrity gossip way.
Who remembers Mary-Ellen Walton? I do. I was up there on Walton's Mountain with the whole gang. I thought John-Boy was so handsome. Loved the steely Grandma. The little one - Elizabeth - she annoyed me - too cute. There was a middle one - I forget her name - so not much of an impression there. Oh yeah – Erin. The Mum - Livvie? Well I liked it when she let all that hair down at night and brushed it out - freedom! But Mary-Ellen. She played SOFTBALL! And wore denim dungaree's! Really what more could a young kiwi tomboy aspire to? Mary-Ellen was played by Judy Norton Taylor and I’ve read that she is a practising Scientologist and has appeared in Playboy … I won’t go there.
Mary-Ellen was forthright and stuck to her guns. She inspired me – I took up softball and even got around in dungaree’s circa 1974. Personality wise – well – my shyness would take over – but I did have some Mary-Ellen moments. She was a great role model really considering the times. Most females on tele were mindless girly girls who either got killed or got saved. Mary-Ellen did the saving. G’night Mary-Ellen.
HI FELLOW SCREEN WATCHERS ...
What are my credentials for writing on this topic? I’m a bit of a tele girl - growing up in the seventies what else could I be? It’s like an old faithful dog - always there, waiting and ready to share the contents of its dinner bowl: drama, laughs and lashings of trash. For the purposes of this blog, I’m including films via DVD or on the big screen into the dinner bowl mix. Mind you, living out in rural Australia I don’t get to the flicks too often. Most of my celluloid comes via DVD – lets call them ‘divvy’s
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