A few weeks back, I finally caught my first Bette Davis movie. Now it's Joan Crawford's turn. It really does show you how modern-skewing my movie tastes are that I've seen 3000 movies over 30 years and only now saw my first movies featuring the two of them.
It's funny how similar I found the two movies: All About Eve and Mildred Pierce. They are both about successful women who are getting pushed out or ruined by a younger woman. In Mildred's case, it's her daughter. In All About Eve, Eve is an understudy/assistant. Both pairs of woman came away with Oscar nominations for their work (Crawford and Ann Blyth for Mildred Pierce, Davis and Anne Baxter for All About Eve). Only Crawford came away with a win. Eve Arden's character was my favorite in Mildred Pierce though. Crawford was fine. I wasn't all that impressed. Based on this small sampling, I can understand why people at the time called Davis the actress and Crawford the movie star.
I know that Mildred Pierce was turned into a mini-series by HBO a few years back. I haven't seen that, but I get the impression that Mildred Pierce fits better in a longer form like that. The movie zips along at a fast pace and it feel like more was going on than the film had the time to cover. For example, the daughter's story felt very rushed. I'm now a lot more curious to see that mini-series. Part of that is bias, because a Kate Winslet/Evan Rachel Wood pairing excites me a lot more than Crawford/Blyth.
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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