Mildred Pierce Mildred Pierce Mildred Pierce is a 1941 hardboiled novel by James M. Cain. It was made into an Academy Award–winning film of the same name in 1945, starring Joan Crawford, and a 2011 Emmy Award–winning miniseries of the same name, starring Kate Winslet. Set in Glendale, California, in the 1930s, the book is the story of a middle-class housewife, Mildred Pierce, and her attempts to maintain her family's social position during the Great Depression. Mildred separates from Bert, her unemployed husband, and sets out to support herself and her children. After a difficult search she finds a job as a
Ann Blyth budgeted "Bowery to Broadway" (1944), a showcase of Universal musical talent. On loan to Warner Brothers, Blyth was cast "against type" as Veda Pierce, the scheming, ungrateful daughter of Joan Crawford in "Mildred Pierce" (1945). Her dramatic portrayal won her outstanding reviews, and she received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Blyth was only 16 when she made the Michael Curtiz film. (Crawford won the Best Actress award for that film.) After "Mildred Pierce", Blyth sustained a broken back while tobogganing in Snow Valley, and was not able to fully capitalize on the film's success She