Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
(Michael Curtiz, US 1945, 111 min.)
Originally scheduled as a film series for this fall at The Dryden, we look 75 years into the past at the Academy Award nominees for Best Picture of 1945. A diverse group of films that highlight the breadth of technique and genre taking place at the height of the Hollywood system.
Joan Crawford’s Academy Award–winning performance is the centerpiece of this James M. Cain adaptation about a woman who endures a lifetime of hardship to bring her daughter the happiness she desires. Put-upon housewife Mildred (Crawford) divorces her unfaithful husband, takes on a job as a waitress, and opens a successful chain of restaurants—but despite all this, she just can't seem to please her spoiled daughter Veda (Ann Blyth), a situation that results in marriage, adultery, and murder. Director Michael Curtiz crafts a nonlinear narrative that unspools Mildred’s past as a mystery leading up to an ending that seems both shocking and inevitable. The film revitalized Crawford's career after her move to Warner Bros. and led her to subsequent acting nominations in Possessed (1947) and Sudden Fear (1952).
This video has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities:
NEH CARES. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this video, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.
(Michael Curtiz, US 1945, 111 min.)
Originally scheduled as a film series for this fall at The Dryden, we look 75 years into the past at the Academy Award nominees for Best Picture of 1945. A diverse group of films that highlight the breadth of technique and genre taking place at the height of the Hollywood system.
Joan Crawford’s Academy Award–winning performance is the centerpiece of this James M. Cain adaptation about a woman who endures a lifetime of hardship to bring her daughter the happiness she desires. Put-upon housewife Mildred (Crawford) divorces her unfaithful husband, takes on a job as a waitress, and opens a successful chain of restaurants—but despite all this, she just can't seem to please her spoiled daughter Veda (Ann Blyth), a situation that results in marriage, adultery, and murder. Director Michael Curtiz crafts a nonlinear narrative that unspools Mildred’s past as a mystery leading up to an ending that seems both shocking and inevitable. The film revitalized Crawford's career after her move to Warner Bros. and led her to subsequent acting nominations in Possessed (1947) and Sudden Fear (1952).
This video has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities:
NEH CARES. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this video, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.
