Michael Curtiz was already one of the most successful directors in Hollywood when Warner Brothers practically forced him to cast Joan Crawford in one of the most famous melodramas ever made. Crawford, an American household name who was recognized as one of the most professional actors in Hollywood, led a devastating supporting cast in this 1945 mystery that tells us more than we ever wanted to know about sexual politics after the Second World War. Join me as we talk about the feminization of men, the wasteland of masculinity, the attack on femininity, the impact of the Second World War, and that dreaded word no one wants to discuss…incest. The Super 70 Podcast is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, and my website at www.thatdylandavis.com. All music on The Super 70 Podcast is provided by Rozalind MacPhail, Joshua Cunningham and Peter John Ross whom you can all find on SoundCloud. Works Cited Williams, Linda. Feminist Film Theory: Mildred Pierce and the Second World War. Female Spectators: Looking at Film and Television. Ed. E. Deidre Pribram. Verso, London. 1988. Haralovich, Mary Beth. Too Much Guilt Is Never Enough for Working Mothers: Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce, and Mommie Dearest. Velvet Light Trap. University of Texas Press. 1992. Schrader, Paul. Notes on Film Noir. The Film Genre Book Ed. Barry Keith Grant. University of Texas Press. Austin 1986. Sochen, June. Mildrid Pearce and Women in Film. American Quarterly vol 30, No. 1 Spring 1978. Harvey, Sylvia. Woman’s Place: The Absent Family of Film Noir. Women in Film Noir. Edited by E. Ann Kaplan. BFI Publishing. Corber, Robert J. Joan Crawford’s Padded Shoulders: Female Masculinity in Mildred Pierce. Camera Obscura, Duke University Press.
