James M. Cain 's Mildred Pierce

murder. Lois’ writing is, authentic and detailed, while having the reader create vivid images and

Mildred Pierce is one of the greatest novels written by James M. Cain. After the success of the novel, the Hollywood film came out, produced by Jerry Wald. The novel and the movie are very different from each other. “James M. Cain sent several letters of complaint to producer Jerry Wald, objecting to the changes Wald wanted to make, especially the dramatic idea of making Veda a washout musically and putting her in a tawdry nightclub” (Bennett Notes). The three main differences in the film were, the murder of Monte, Veda not having a successful career, and the time period only covering 1941 to 1945.

3. In “In Cold Blood”(1965), a nonfiction novel, Truman Capote accounts for the murder of the Clutter family, residing in Holcomb, Kansas, and the events that followed. The mode of development includes Gothic themes and motifs to make the audience question the roles of the protagonists and the antagonists, “Uh-huh. But you’ll have to kill me first”, said Perry to Dick when he proposed to rape Nancy Clutter; Capote also juxtaposes between different time periods to make the audience question what had really happened in the Clutter household. This work of “new-age journalism” continually asserts that Perry killed the Clutters, although scant evidence is produced. Capote’s target audience is the people who are part of the criminal justice system and psychologists. Capote is trying to prove that all people are inherently benevolent, but when they have had traumatic events occur in their past, they have injured psyches, thus attempting to explain the formerly inexplicable murders.

Mildred, even though was someone that lacked excitement and interesting things, still was one of the biggest and most influential characters in the entire novel. Her purpose was not to only show the reader how a normal citizen would act and think, but to make them understand how someone could do such tremendous things after being brainwashed and believed to be someone that had no potential or reason in life.

In contemporary film making, “Hollywood-ization” generally refers to the re-creation of a classic work in a form more vulgar and sexually explicit than the original in an effort to boost movie attendance. After all, sex and violence sell. However, from the mid-1930’s to the 1950’s, “Hollywood-ization” referred to the opposite case where controversial books had to be purified to abide by the Production Code of 1934.[1] This occurred to many of James Cain’s novels as they moved from text to the genre of “film noir.” As has been said about Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice, “The property, bought several years ago, was kept in the studio’s archives until now

Mildred has allowed the technology of her fast- paced world to dictate every aspect of her life, including how and what she is able to she think and feel. Bradbury uses irony by associating female phallic symbols such as seashells with Mildred, who cannot have children or even take care of Montag when he is sick. She does not even show sympathy for the woman that chose to burn with her books. The irony lies in the

“Genres are not systems, they are a process of systematisation.”(Neale 1980). Genres are both a method of nomenclature, dividing literature according to its style, subject and context. Genre constantly re-imagines, challenges, and expands its boundaries to reflect zeitgeist of the society at the time and to become a barometer of the social and cultural concerns of the audience. Likewise, crime fiction as a genre has evolved from traditional conventions. Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window and Cornell Woolrich's It had to be Murder, whilst obeying and selectively utilising a few original conventions, manifest the ideology and social concerns of the postwar 1950s society in aspects of the modus operandi of the investigation, gender roles and the shift

“Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young,” Mildred’s friend, Ida, echoes what is seemingly the general consensus upon viewing the film Mildred Pierce (1945). In James M. Cain’s 1945 hardboiled crime novel of the same name, we’re taken on a whirlwind ride as Mildred separates from her husband, goes into the restaurant business, and tries to give her daughter, Veda, everything she desires. In the film adaptation, we’re also taken on a whirlwind ride, but this time in the form of a murder mystery. Hollywood can’t be blamed for twisting the story into the classic film noir that audiences craved, but there’s no denying the vastly different stories within the pages and on the screen. Michael Curtiz’s

There are a few distinctions between Cain’s Mildred Pierce and the movie version, mostly with the ingenious use of different point of views in several specific film scenes. In this paper, I want to discuss more about on that subject which are listed as follows.

Though set in entirely dissimilar countries at different points in history, Margaret Atwood’s ‘Alias Grace’ and Hannah Kent’s ‘Burial Rites’ possess significant comparisons. Both for instance, are fictionalized historical novels following the tribulations of a female protagonist convicted of murder and both have been widely acclaimed for their incredible literary style which merges classic poetry, epigraphs, folklore and historical articles with fiction. The most striking parallel between each novel that can be drawn, however, is the way in which authors masterfully craft the stories of untrustworthy, cunning and deceptive criminals to elicit sympathy from their audiences. Readers of the novel and secondary characters alike are gradually pulled into sympathising with ambiguous and untrustworthy female leads, Grace Marks (Alias Grace) and Agnes Magnusdottir (Burial Rites). Despite the heavy suspicions of others and a lack of evidence to support their claims of innocence, these characters present artfully manipulated features of their defence stories to provoke empathy, sympathy and trust from those within the novel, and those reading it.

Ambiguous Framing When Henry James’s novella, The Turn of the Screw was adapted into Jack Clayton’s 1961 film, The Innocents, the frame story was conspicuously missing. Francesco Casetti’s “Adaptation and Mis-adaptations” says the reappearance of a story creates an area of discourse between the two stories (Casetti 82-83.) Both The Turn of the Screw and The Innocents are successful and entertaining stories only The Innocents has a much lower level of ambiguity. Much of the loss of ambiguity comes from the difficulty in translating Henry James’s famously complex syntax to the screen.

Austen has set out to save the rising art form of the novel. In this address to the reader she glorifies what a novel should be: the unrestrained expression of words conveying the wide range of raw human emotion. This veneration of the novel is necessary to the development of Catherine's fiction-loving character as it justifies the narrator's right to remain fond of this flawed heroine.

The issue of female persecution throughout many of Hitchcock’s films has been fiercely contested, none more so than the controversial issue of assault and the attempted rape of a woman. Views that Hitchcock represents the archetypal misogynist are supported, Modelski suggesting that his films invite “his audience to indulge their most sadistic fantasies against the female” (18). Through both the manipulation of sound and the use of language, none more so than in Blackmail and Frenzy, the idea of rape and violence does effectively silence and subdue not only the women in the films, but the also the women watching them (18).

In the Quentin Jerome Tarantino film called “Kill Bill”, Volume 1 and 2, there is a contrast between the two essential characters that has rock-hard roles for the male as well as female lead roles. In this essay I will observe the comparison and contrasting roles of these characters. The primary male character is Bill and the female character is called Beatrice Kiddo. During the film, the main story line refers Beatrice's viewpoint and has a few scenes where Bill is leading illegal actions with other hit men and ladies he has taught. It talks mainly of the female character but the male character plays a significant role during most of it. The female character name is Beatrice and the male characters name is Bill (Bender, et al. 2004).

Mildred Pierce is a film noir despite being a "Woman's picture". This classic tale takes you through the life of a woman of desperately wanted to give her kids everything she never had, at the expense of herself. While doing so, it takes you on a mystery rollercoaster while we all try and conclude who is responsible for the Monte murder. This story was filmed in the 1940’s and opens with the murder of Monte whose words introduce us to the movie and its title character "Mildred." The story is told via flashback, with Mildred narrating and being brought down by the conspiracies of a femme fatale; in this case Mildred's daughter, Veda.