Mildred Pierce/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Executive Meddling: When Warner Brothers bought the rights to the novel, they ordered it rewritten to be in line with James Cain's other noir stories. While it is widely rumored that the changes were done to appease the Hays Code, in truth they were made because studio executives thought no one would see a movie where a mother is treated like a doormat for 111 minutes.
  • Fake American: In the miniseries, English Kate Winslet as Mildred, Australian Guy Pearce as Monty, and Irish Brian F. O'Byrne as Bert.
  • Playing Against Type: The movie: Joan Crawford playing a doormat, Ann Blyth in a rare villain role, and Jack Carson (a notable comedian of the 1940s) playing a slimy yet charming corrupt businessman.
    • The novel itself can be seen as such, as James Cain (who wrote Mildred Pierce) was a noted crime noir writer.