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| - Mildred Pierce is a 1945 Warner Bros film, based on the novel by James M. Cain, directed by Michael Curtiz, and starring Joan Crawford. One gunshot opens the film. Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott) collapses onto the floor, and chokes out "Mildred" before dying. Mildred herself is walking out to the docks, looking over the edge as if to jump. The police take her to the station and she relates her story. Mildred eventually marries Monte, a rich playboy, to impress Veda. Things go downhill from there, until we find out how Monte was killed. Sonic Youth named one of their songs after the film.
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abstract
| - Mildred Pierce is a 1945 Warner Bros film, based on the novel by James M. Cain, directed by Michael Curtiz, and starring Joan Crawford. One gunshot opens the film. Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott) collapses onto the floor, and chokes out "Mildred" before dying. Mildred herself is walking out to the docks, looking over the edge as if to jump. The police take her to the station and she relates her story. Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford) is a typical middle-class housewife in suburbia. Bert (Bruce Bennett) is her recently unemployed husband, and they have two spoiled daughters--pre-teen Kay (Jo Ann Marlowe) and teenaged Veda (Ann Blyth). Bert is against Mildred's parenting style, which he calls "buying them love", but Mildred sees it as protecting them. After fighting over this and Mildred's claims that he has been cheating on her, Bert decides to leave. Mildred rebuilds her life by becoming a waitress and eventually owner of a successful restaurant (with money borrowed from callow heel Wally (Jack Carson), though Veda sees the work as degrading. Mildred does anything she can to impress Veda, but the girl insists on regarding her mother as "a common frump whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing." Mildred eventually marries Monte, a rich playboy, to impress Veda. Things go downhill from there, until we find out how Monte was killed. Joan Crawford won a Best Actress Academy Award for her performance, and the film was nominated in several other categories. In 2011, the original novel was adapted into a three-part, five hour mini-series for HBO, with Kate Winslet as Mildred, Evan Rachel Wood as Veda and Guy Pearce as Monty. The mini-series followed the novel more closely than the movie, restoring the novel's Downer Ending and plot points such as Veda becoming a successful opera singer. Sonic Youth named one of their songs after the film.
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