Mildred Pirs

SINOPSIS

Newly divorced housewife Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford) wants desperately to raise her daughters in style, especially the precociously sinister Veda (Ann Blyth). She secretly becomes a waitress for restaurant manager Ida Corwin (Eve Arden), while dodging the passes of her ex-husbands unscrupulous ex-partner, Wally Fay (Jack Carson). A soaring business success, Mildred opens her own chain of restaurants by correctly judging the needs and tastes of middle class people like herself. But she strains her own bank account to satisfy the growing desires of Veda, and to associate with the ritzy, old-fashioned monied set of Pasadena. She finds herself attracted to the high-bred but penniless Monty Baragon (Zachary Scott), a mistake that leads to multiple betrayals and murder.
From the novel by James M. Cain