Mildred Pierce (1945) and To Gain the World | A Movie Review

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Check out my 1-minute review on YouTube.

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I go to the movies far less than I used to. The main reason is because there are fewer new movies I want to see. Instead, I’ve turned to digging in the mines of movie history to find and recommend gems to you. Mildred Pierce (1945) is one of them. It’s another film that sat on my watch list for years; another film recommended by my mother: the queen of classic movies! 

LIKE A GUNSHOT - GOT MY ATTENTION!

Mildred Pierce captured my attention from the very beginning. The opening scene sets the tone with torrential rain, moody shadows, and gunshots to the chest—just what you would expect in a 1940s film noir. 

Similar to Sunset Boulevard (1950), this movie is both a crime thriller and a human drama. They both take a non-linear approach to their storytelling, first giving us a glimpse of the end before going backwards to share how it led to it.  

So after the murder of a man with a mustache in a beach house (sounds like something from Clue!), we meet Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford), fleeing the beach house. Eventually, she finds herself in the police station, answering questions about the murder of Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott). 

This starts the flashback introducing us to Mildred and her husband, Bert (Bruce Bennett), fighting. The bills are overdue and he cannot keep a job. By the end of the scene, Bert packs up and leaves his family, but not without sending a few warning shots over the bow. Veda, their eldest daughter, is trouble. 

All that Mildred wants is to give her daughters what she never had. With no prospects for “respectable” work, Mildred takes a job as a server in secret, afraid of the way it would embarrass Veda. Veda eventually discovers this, and she’s appalled. Mildred calms her, not with the value of hard work, but the consolation that there’s lots of money in owning a restaurant, and soon they will find riches at their doorstep. 

Sure enough, Mildred starts her entrepreneurial journey, leaving no doubt that she is smart, hard-working, and destined for financial success. On the way, Mildred meets a charismatic and handsome man named Monte (name sound familiar from above?) who hails from a well-respected and established family. Is he the missing key to a life of leisure and wealth? Or the key to a door of misery? 

JESUS VS. VEDA AND DISNEY

I cannot get Jesus’ words out of my mind, “For what does it profit a man,” he said, “if he gains the whole word and loses . . . his life” (Luke 9:25). Veda wanted the world, and all the glitter and glory promised with it. And Mildred wanted her to have it, because she thought it would make her happy, and keep their relationship strong. Without spoiling too much, Mildred gave Veda the world, and in return, it demanded more than she or Veda ever bargained for.

While Disney tells us to follow our hearts, Mildred Pierce warns us they are deceptive. 

While culture tells us to make children the center of our lives, Mildred Pierce reminds us that children need guidance and discipline—they need parents. 

Besides many nuggets of wisdom and warning, Mildred Pierce comes with crisp dialogue, stellar acting, impressive set pieces, and a beach house I’d love to vacation in! Most importantly, this thriller doesn’t sacrifice depth for excitement, it marries them brilliantly. I hope you feel the same!

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Dane Bundy is president of Stage & Story and Director of Fine Arts at Regents School of Austin, a K-12 classical Christian school in Austin, Texas.