15 Mar Fashion in Classic Film Noir: Mildred Pierce (1945)
Although its film noir status is debated, Mildred Pierce is yet another fantastic film based on a James M. Cain novel (Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice). Mildred Pierce is the story of a mother who struggles to support her two daughters by (eventually) opening up her own restaurant business after her husband, Bert (Bruce Bennett), leaves her for another woman.
Mildred (Joan Crawford) goes through 4 stages throughout the film, and those stages are represented impeccably by her outfits: housewife, lowly waitress, rookie entrepreneur, and successful business woman. Her eldest daughter, Veda (Ann Blyth) also goes through 4 stages well symbolized by her clothes: young girl, spoiled teenager, a still spoiled but older and more defiant young lady, and a devious and despicable woman.
We meet Mildred in her final stage. Here she is in the famous bridge scene wearing an oversized, wide padded shoulder fur coat.
Like most noir’s the flashback occurs near the beginning of the film and takes up the majority of run time. Mildred is our narrator and she opens the story to the scene below when she was still married to Bert.
Burt is out of a job and acting like a child about it, going on about the expenses they have because of the way Mildred wants to bring up their daughters. It is this fact about Mildred that will ultimately be her—and their—downfall. This film is actually very forward-thinking for its time. Mildred absolutely does not take any of Bert’s shit, forces him to leave, will take on a waitressing job, demands and receives her divorce, and become an entrepreneur on her own terms no matter what anyone else in her life thinks.
Here she wears a simple v-neck button-up frock with pleated detail around the bust, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, a contrasting striped hem (not seen in this photo), and a floral print apron tied around her waist.
On the other hand, Veda wears a skirt, sweater, and plaid jacket, and her hair tried with a ribbon in a very young and girlish low ponytail.
Immediately after Bert leaves, Mildred goes and gets herself a waitressing job, learning the restaurant business “the hard way” and makes friends with Ida (Eve Arden), who will later go into business with Mildred. Above is her waitress uniform: gingham midi dress with contrasting trims on the lapels and cuffs, white apron, white hair piece, and white heels. This is the working girl uniform, one she keeps secret from even her daughters out of embarrassment.
But that’s not all.
She’s in debt, and a waitressing job just won’t cut it. When Mildred gets home after working all day, she bakes pies in her own kitchen for the restaurant to serve the next day. Above is Mildred in a gingham button up dress or perhaps matching shirt and skirt—it’s hard to tell, but she’s definitely wearing braces, so it makes me lean toward the latter—and floral apron around her waist.
Things start looking up for Mildred: she can afford expensive piano lessons for Veda and ballet school for younger daughter, Kay. However, Veda finds the uniform in her mother’s closet and insults her. Yikes. Mildred tells Veda she only did it to learn how to work in a restaurant so that she can open her own restaurant. Veda only approves because she believes it will make them rich.
Above, Mildred wears a simple black skirt and button up jacket with a crisscross patterned collar and tiny lapels (it might actually be reversible, with pattern on the inside, as that would make sense for this era of heavy rationing). Veda, still looking very girlish, wears a polka dot short sleeved knee-length dress with lace frill detail around the shoulders, across the top of the bust, and on the trim of the sleeves, and a ribbon in her hair.
Moving right along, Mildred’s friend and an old business partner of Bert, Wally Fay (Jack Carson), works in real estate and helps Mildred obtain space for her restaurant. He also informs her that because of a clause in California law that says half of what one spouse owns belongs to the other, she will need to get a divorce from Bert so that his creditors won’t be “hanging around.”
In the above scene, Bert returns home to pick up the kids for a weekend trip and Mildred pleads him for a divorce. Mildred is wearing a clover print house dress with a nipped in waist.
Mildred gets what she wants. Above, she is setting up her restaurant (notice she is taking care of it herself), wearing a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up tucked into a button front pencil skirt held up with leather braces and a pair of white peep-toe sling back heels.
Our first shot of these scene is actually a close up of her legs with Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott) entering in the background. Monte is a broke playboy from good social standing and was the previous owner of the space Mildred bought.
Monte convinces Mildred to ditch her work and come to his beach house for a swim. For the occasion she wears a polka dot midi dress in a similar style to her previous dresses. Bad news interrupts their date, however, as you can see by the photo above.
After the tragedy, Mildred channels all her grief into restaurant operations. It’s a great success and Ida (pictured right) returns to the picture to help Mildred run her restaurant. Veda and Wally drop by to congratulate her on her achievement. Mildred wears a very business-like structured black dress, a white cravat scarf, and her hair combed back into a sleeker style. Veda wears a light and feminine stripped short-sleeved button up jacket with a simple skirt and floppy hat. Notice Veda’s hair is shorter and is no longer tied up with a ribbon.
Veda, who has taken a liking to Monte and shares his expensive tastes, is becoming a young lady. Monte also starts accepting handouts from Mildred after his “little trouble, “as Mildred’s narration will tell us: “At first it bothered Monte to take money from me, then it became a habit with him.”
But Mildred’s people pleasing nature and desire to give the best to the people she cares about forces her to work even harder with her business, so she gets Wally’s help to find more property and open up a chain of restaurants.
Mildred wears a smart pinstriped skirt suit with padded shoulders—they’re getting wider as she gets more successful—with a white silk blouse and silver broach. Veda has become more mature in a light skirt suit with braided trim, glittering ribbon broach, gloves, and a hat. I’m not a hat expert, but it has a sailor look about it, which, by checking out Vintage Dancer for possibilities, makes me guess it’s a Scottie or Toque hat.
In the scene from the photo above, Mildred has just bought Veda an $18,000 car for her birthday and is about to give Monte a talking-to about his habit of taking Veda out to expensive places all the time and spending so much of Mildred’s money. They have a row, Monte accepts one last handout from Mildred, and then storms out.
A few Veda mishaps and a short trip later, and Mildred reunites on better terms with both Monte and ex-husband Bert (who is now doing much better off). Mildred and Monte reconcile and get married in order to improve Mildred and Veda’s social standing so that Mildred can give her daughter the life she desires. In return, Monte asks for 1/3 of a share of the business, which Mildred agrees to.
A brief, happy reunion occurs just before Veda’s birthday party (a very lavish affair, of course) to which Veda wears the angelic, elegant tulle gown with lame bodice and flower headpiece, above.
That same night, Mildred goes bankrupt and discovers Monte sold his share and forced the situation of Mildred having to sell her business. Ready to have it out with him, Mildred drives to the beach house where she finds Monte and Veda having an affair (gross). You’ll notice Mildred is in the same outfit we first saw her in at the beginning of the film, but now we see how the events truly played out and everything comes full circle as the flashback ends and we return to the present where justice is served.
Sources:
- Classic Hollywood Style by Caroline Young
- https://vintagedancer.com/1940s/1940s-hats