The Criterion Collection is proud to present the gripping vintage murder mystery on Blu-ray, featuring a new 4K digital restoration.
High camp is the name of the game in Mildred Pierce, a gripping fusion of film noir and 1940s women’s picture that got nominated for six Academy Awards. In her most iconic performance, Joan Crawford (she got the Best Actress Oscar) plays the single mother who walks out on her husband and builds up her own restaurant chain, but whose personal life is a disaster area… resulting in murder!
Wonderfully well-constructed, this gripping melodramatic portrait of maternal sacrifice from Casablanca director Michael Curtiz also features memorable turns from Zachary Scott as Mildred's worthless playboy second husband Monte, and Ann Blyth as her spoiled daughter Veda. Recasting James M Cain rich psychological novel as a murder mystery, this bitter cocktail of blind parental love and all-American ambition is both unremittingly hard-boiled and sumptuously emotional.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack • New conversation about Mildred Pierce with critics Molly Haskell and Robert Polito • Excerpt from a 1970 episode of The David Frost Show, featuring Joan Crawford • Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star: a 2002 documentary on Crawford’s life and career, narrated by Angelica Huston (that’s longer than the movie, but just as gripping and melodramatic) • Q&A with actor Ann Blyth from 2002, conducted by film historian Eddie Muller • Segment from a 1969 episode of The Today Show, featuring novelist James M Cain • Trailer • Plus, an essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoOr_OoHbv4
