Joan
Bette
I'm a sucker for the classics. There's nothing like relaxing to an old Joan Crawford or Bette Davis movie. Those two were treacherous and really made an old movie scandalously intriguing, that anyone can appreciate in this day an age..I watched Of Human Bondage with Bette Davis a few weeks ago and enjoyed her role as an evil harlot.
A kind and humble educated young man with a "club foot" Philip, falls for an illiterate waitress, Mildred, played by Bette Davis. She rejects him and runs off with a salesman and returns unmarried and pregnant.
Philip takes her back again when she returns with her baby. She wrecks his apartment and burns the securities he needs to pay tuition. He gets a job as a salesman, has surgery on his foot, receives an inheritance, and returns to school where he learns Mildred is dying.
"The clubfooted aspirant painter Philip Carey is advised by an acquaintance to give-up his artistic ambition since he is a mediocre artist. He joins the medical school in London using his inheritance to pay the school and to have a comfortable life. When he meets the cold cockney waitress Mildred Rogers in a restaurant, the shy Philip has a crush on her but she rejects him. Philip stalks her and dates her; however the easy woman scorns him. When Philip proposes Mildred, she tells him that she is going to marry her lover Miller, leaving the brokenhearted Philip obsessed for her. He tries to move on, dating the affectionate Norah in an unrequited love. However, when Mildred returns alone and pregnant, Philip lodges them in his home. Sooner Mildred becomes lover of Philip's friend Reginald Denny and leaves Philip again. When Philip finds Mildred and her baby later abandoned on the street, he brings them home. Mildred unsuccessfully tries to seduce Philip but he loathes her; Mildred feels humiliated and wrecks his apartment and burns his savings, forcing Philip to quit the medical school. However his teacher offers to operate his feet first and Philip becomes a normal man. But he does not succeed to find a job and his life goes downhill fast until he meets a friend that helps him".
(Above from IMDB)
Of course I adored Mildred Pierce with Joan Crawford waaaay before they made it over in 2011 with Kate Winslet. I appreciate the drama in the original movie much more than the recent one.
After her cheating husband leaves her, Mildred Pierce proves she can become independent and successful, but can't win the approval of her spoiled daughter.
Mildred Pierce dotes on her daughters while husband Bert looks to Maggie Binderhof for affection. They soon divorce, leaving Mildred to raise the girls on her own. Elder daughter Veda goads her mother about their lack of money and in response Mildred proposes opening a small restaurant. Realtor Wally Fay advises her while making numerous rebuffed passes and introduces her to Monte Baragon whose property becomes the first of a chain of restaurants. Mildred has an affair with Monte. Meanwhile, money-hungry Veda pretends to be pregnant by wealthy Ted Forrester in order to bilk his family of $10,000. Mildred tears up the check, is slapped by Veda, and orders her daughter to leave. After time away, Mildred returns to find Veda singing in a cheap club. Veda will return only if Mildred promises luxury, so Mildred agrees to marry Monte in exchange for a third of her businesses. It soon becomes clear that something is going on between Veda and Monte...
(IMDB)
Here are some of my favorite movies with Joan Crawford and Bette Davis:
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte
Strait Jacket
What ever happened to baby Jane
Of Human Bondage
Mildred pierce
Autumn Leaves
All about Eve
Deception
All this and heaven too
Dark Victory
Jezebel
The Bad sister
Just to name a few....
Joan Crawford and Bette Davis hated each other though they came in some of the same movies together. So much drama! It was all that estrogen!...
