My Top 25 Favorite Films: #19!!

I could put movies I watched with relatives into very distinct categories. It was my grandmother with whom I savored the cinematic delights of Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan and Warner Oland's Charlie Chan. My father wanted to educate me on World War II by exposing me to everything from "Destination:Tokyo" to "The Longest Day."

As for my mom, we shared all those wonderful Warner Brothers melodramas from the 30s and 40s, usually with some studio contracted actress in the lead. When I was a kid, Channel 5 (Metromedia in NY) bought up a lot of those movies and loved to unspool them one right after another on Sunday afternoon. If it was winter and the snow was piling up outside, you find me and my mother rooted in front of the TV, with Mom puffing away right along with Bette Davis.

That's how I came to appreciate "Mildred Pierce," which provided Joan Crawford with her only Best Actress Oscar. One could aruge that this is her greatest acting role as she is cast completely against what we later will learn was her type: a loving, doting, and selfless mother. In Mildred's world, there is no evidence of wire hangers or Babo cleanser. As a divorced mother, she is totally committed to making a better life for her ingrate of a daughter, Veda, who is the greatest bitch to be ever captured on film. Ann Blythe played that part and, around the time that I first saw this movie with my mom, the actress was the TV spokesperson for good old wholesome Wonder Bread. I would never buy a loaf of anything from this woman as a result.

Mildred Pierce, captured first on film in 1945, is indeed cinema's first feminist character. To support Veda's expansive tastes for the good life, Mildred opens a chain of successful LA restaurants, which seem to very much resemble Marie Callender's. Of course, given that this is a Warner Brothers "chick flick," you ultimately wind up with lots of tears, a murder, cheating men, and some of the best bitch slaps ever to be filmed by Hollywood. One shot to Mildred's cheek flattens her on her ass. It is all so delicious that, despite these characters' serious plights, my mother and I would be grinning from ear to ear every time we watched it.

The movie also features some terrific character actors. I don't think I ever saw Zachary Scott in another movie, but he is the epitome of sleaze in this. The type of guy who would be on a car lot trying to cut you a great deal on a Chevy Vega. And the always fabulous Eve Arden conducts a master class on how to be the wisecracking best friend of the lead character. Every time I see "Mildred Pierce," I keep hoping that, somehow, Warner Brothers has unearthed more footage featuring Eve's zingers. And, in a small role, Butterfly McQueen plays (what else?) a housekeeper. Watch the scene where she tries to figure out how to answer a telephone. It is worth the price of the ticket or the DVD. Here's the trailer.

"Mildred Pierce" is indeed a movie constructed from the same weepy cookie cutter that Warner Brothers had perfected for the female audience waiting for their men to come home from war. But, it is probably the most delectable cookie made from that kitchen. I finally got to see "Mildred Pierce" on a big screen a while back at the Alex Theater in Pasadena. It was another one of those "only in LA" evenings where 3/4 of gay West Hollywood showed up to cheer the heroine on. Several of them had even done their eyebrows just like Joan for the night.

Come to think of it, my mother probably would have done hers the same way.

Dinner last night: Assorted Chinese dishes at Panda.