Crawford, an Oscar-winner as Mildred, was no saint to her own adopted children Mommie Dearest proved that. So when Mildred marries the polo-playing Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott), she schemes to take him too. Veda wants to be more than moneyed she wants to be Old Money. Yet she despises her mother for earning money the old-fashioned way: by earning it. Her drive and brains build that menial job into ownership of a restaurant chain and the fancy home, clothes and status that Veda thinks is her birthright.
Mothers strive so their children can thrive, and Mildred Pierce goes to work as a waitress in a restaurant. Her ex-husband (Bruce Bennett) was shiftless and her teenage daughter Veda (Ann Blyth) is needy. Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce in Mildred Pierce, 1945 Their bodies are the arsenals of future generations. We’ll go on forever, Pa, ’cause we’re the people.” As men go to war and kill, so women give life. Darwell, who earned a Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance, had the last inspiring words for the American underclass: “They can’t wipe us out they can’t lick us. Tom (Henry Fonda) is the firebrand of the family, Ma the hearth. Directed by John Ford from John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath wrings every drop of rage and pathos out of the plight of desperate farmers, ten years into the Depression. They find tragedy instead, and only the flinty optimism of their matriarch, Ma Joad, sustains them. Jane Darwell as Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, 1940įollowing the pioneer trail, the Joad family went West - from devastated Dust Bowl Oklahoma to California, “the Golden State” - to find work.