Mildred Pierce

One of the great melodramas has Crawford at her very best. Based on the novel by James M Cain, mother/daughter rivalry is taken to the limits in this rags-to-riches story of a woman who turns her back on the confines of the family to make a new life for herself and her children. Ann Blyth is unpleasantly good and Arden drops her characteristic one-liners like pearls.