Mildred Pierce Movie And Book Comparison

The Effect of Translation from Novel to Film

James M. Cain’s 1941 novel Mildred Pierce is widely recognized as a literary classic. Its 1945 film adaptation starring Joan Crawford has also achieved classic status in the film noir genre. However, there are key differences between the two despite their apparent similarities. Due to various reasons and creative choices, the film can be regarded to as a loose adaptation as the main theme of book is how Mildred is affected by the draw backs of her time such as the Great Depression and her relationships while the film is a glamorized version of the story that translates the text more into an onscreen mystery. This dynamic completely changes the narrative configuration of the film as it changes many of the key plot points in which the book was written.

In the book, Mildred Pierce is an insecure woman who is moving to the motions of life while in the film she is a much more feminine woman who seems to have more control.

In the novel, Mildred and Burt are forced to marry because Mildred becomes pregnant and it would have been unacceptable for her to have a child out of wedlock. In the film, however, their marriage appears to have happened under normal circumstances. In both versions, Mildred has the drive and determination to succeed with her business. In the novel, Mildred appears to to be more concerned about her social status and always seeks to educated herself in politics and worldly matters as it made her feel more educated. There is no mention of this in the film as Mildred is portrayed as much more confident and didn't concern herself with such issues. In the film Mildred more sure of every decision she makes while in the novel she seems to be moving to to motions of

life.

Yet despite theses differences, there are some very strong similarities. In both versions, Mildred’s drive is centered on her wish to have her daughter Veda succeed. Veda is portrayed in both mediums as a brat who is constantly spoiled by her mother. Mildred works hard to give Veda the life that she sees fit. This is why Mildred first goes into the first restaurant business in the first place. In the novel, when Monte hits hard times because of the great depression and begins to mooch off of Mildred, Mildred dumps him as she finds him a distraction. In both versions, Mildred continues to date losers who seem to just want to mooch off of her. These central themes of love-driven success and failure to find true romance translate well over both mediums.
The film took the novel and glamorized a somewhat sad story about a woman going through hard times and made it into a film noir mystery that centralizes it’s story around a woman who seems to have some control over her life. The novel is a story about how The Great Depression affected a poor woman and her family. The film shows an ambitious woman who constantly overcomes the problems that life dishes out to her. In both cases, Mildred Pierce has a strong sense of what she wants despite her being portrayed with strength in the film and insecurity in the novel. The novel paints Mildred as a more human person with sexual desires, insecurities, and life struggles that people of today deal with. The Mildred of the film is more of a woman of the 40s who despite has so many issues, seems to overcome them without too much struggle. She is a woman of much less character and is more Hollywood than human. This makes the film a loose adaptation and completely changes the dynamic in which the story goes.