Ida Corwin: [to Mildred] Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young.
Ida Corwin: [to Wally about his lustful looks in her direction] Leave something on me. I might catch cold.
Wally Fay: Oh boy! I'm so smart it's a disease!
Mildred Pierce: I'm sorry I did that... I'd've rather cut off my hand!
Veda Pierce: With this money I can get away from you. From you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack with its cheap furniture. And this town and its dollar days, and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls.
Veda Pierce: You think just because you made a little money you can get a new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady. But you can't, because you'll never be anything but a common frump whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing.
Ida Corwin: When men get around me, they get allergic to wedding rings.
Lottie: [on the opening of Mildred's restaurant] This is just like my wedding night, so exciting!
Wally Fay: You know, this is a pretty big night for you.

Policeman #1: Yeah?

Wally Fay: Yeah, lots of excitement. There's a stiff in there!

Policeman #1: Is that so? Oh and I suppose you were running right down to the station to report it?

[Wally forces a laugh]

Policeman #1: [to partner] Yeah... Say, he say's there's a dead guy in the house.

Policeman #2: You never saw a deader.
Mildred Pierce: That Ted Forrester's nice-looking, isn't he? Veda likes him.

Monte Beragon: Who wouldn't? He has a million dollars.
Monte Beragon: Oh, I wish I could get that interested in work.

Ida Corwin: You were probably frightened by a callus at an early age!
Veda Pierce: [kissing the check from the Forresters to keep Veda's pregnancy quiet] Well, that's that!

Mildred Pierce: I'm sorry this had to happen; sorry for the boy, he seemed very nice.

Veda Pierce: Oh Ted's all right really. Did you see the look on his face when we told him he was going to be a father?

[Veda laughs]

Mildred Pierce: I wish you wouldn't joke about it.

Veda Pierce: Mother, you're a scream, really you are. The next thing I know you'll be knitting little garments.

Mildred Pierce: I don't see anything so ridiculous about that.

Veda Pierce: If I were you, I'd save myself the trouble.

Mildred Pierce: [pause] You're not going to have a baby?

Veda Pierce: At this stage, it's a matter of opinion. And in my opinion, I'm going to have a baby. I can always be mistaken.
Monte Beragon: Drink?

Mildred Pierce: You drink too much.

Monte Beragon: I know, I do too much of everything. I'm spoiled.

Mildred Pierce: You've too many sisters... They all seem to be my size too.

Monte Beragon: I know, I like them your size.

Monte Beragon: [raises a glass to toast] To brotherly love.
Wally Fay: [to Ida] I hate all women. Thank goodness you're not one.
Mildred Pierce: You look down on me, because I work for a living. Don't you.
Mildred Pierce: [to Monte about his negotiation regarding them getting married] Sold...

Mildred Pierce: [holds up glass to toast] One Beragon.
Monte Beragon: [as Mildred caught Monte and Veda in a romantic embrace] We weren't expecting you Mildred, obviously.

Veda Pierce: It's just as well you know. I'm glad you know.

Mildred Beragon: How long has this been going on?
Ida Corwin: I like Mexico. It's so... Mexican.
Ida Corwin: Oh, men. I never yet met one of them that didn't have the instincts of a heel. Sometimes I wish I could get along without them.
Wally Fay: There's something about the sound of my own voice that fascinates me.
Ida Corwin: What is this, a class reunion?
Kay Pierce: [talking about her derriere] You ought to do something about your sit-down.

Veda Pierce: What's wrong with it?

Kay Pierce: It sticks out.
Veda Pierce: It's the dress. It's awfully cheap material. I can tell by the smell.

Kay Pierce: What did you expect? Want it inlaid with gold?

Veda Pierce: Well, it seems to me, if you're buying anything, it should be the best. This is definitely not the best.

Kay Pierce: Oh, quit. You're breakin' my heart.
Mildred Pierce: Wally, you should be kept on a leash! Now why can't you be friendly?

Wally Fay: But I *am* being friendly!

Mildred Pierce: No, I mean it. Friendship's much more lasting than love.

Wally Fay: Yeah, but it isn't as entertaining.
Mildred Pierce: Cut it out, Wally. You make me feel like Little Red Riding Hood.

Wally Fay: And I'm the Big Bad Wolf, huh? Now, Milly, you've got me all wrong. I'm a romantic guy, but I'm no wolf.

Mildred Pierce: Then quit howling!
Wally Fay: You know, you keep on refusing me, and one of these days I'm going to start thinking you're stubborn.
Ida Corwin: Laughing boy seems slightly burned at the edges. What's eating him?

Mildred Pierce: A small green-eyed monster.

Ida Corwin: Jealous? That doesn't sound like Wally. No profit in it - and there's a boy who loves a dollar.
Veda Pierce: That's what I like about you, Ida. You're so delightfully provincial.

Ida Corwin: [sarcastically] And I like you, too.

Ida Corwin: [to Monte] Don't look now, Junior, but you're standing under a brick wall.

Monte Beragon: I don't get it.

Ida Corwin: You will... when it falls on you.
Wally Fay: My client feels, and I am in complete accord with her, that she has been irrep - ih...

Mrs. Forrester's Lawyer: 'Irreparably'?

Wally Fay: ...unduly damaged. Therefore there is one more little formality that we should discuss first.

Mrs. Forrester's Lawyer: What's that, Mr. Fay?

Wally Fay: The financial settlement. You see, my client would like ten thousand dollars.

Mrs. Forrester's Lawyer: I think I'm safe in observing that almost anyone would like ten thousand dollars, Mr. Fay. But ih -...

Wally Fay: But ih - ?

Mrs. Forrester's Lawyer: We see no necessity for a financial settlement of any kind.

Wally Fay: You don't, huh?

Mrs. Forrester's Lawyer: No.

Wally Fay: [smirking] You will.
[last lines]

Inspector Peterson: You know, Mrs. Beragon, there are times when I regret being a policeman.
Mr. Jones: Why do you always interrupt?

Ida Corwin: It's only because I want to be alone with you. Come 'ere and let me bite you, you darling man! Ruff!
Mildred Pierce: You've been snooping around ever since I got this job, trying to find out what it is... and now you know. You know, don't you.

Veda Pierce: [innocently] Know what? Know what mother?

Mildred Pierce: You knew when you gave that uniform to Lottie that it was mine didn't you.

Veda Pierce: [feigns surprise] Your uniform!

Mildred Pierce: Yes, I'm waiting tables in a downtown restaurant.

Veda Pierce: [contemptuously] My mother - a waitress.
Mildred Beragon: [to Inspector Peterson] I was always in the kitchen. I felt as though I'd been born in a kitchen and lived there all my life, except for the few hours it took to get married.
Wally Fay: Not too much ice in that drink you're about to make for me.
Inspector Peterson: I know. Everybody thinks detectives do nothing but ask questions... but detectives have souls, the same as anyone else.
Inspector Peterson: Mrs. Beragon, being a detective is like, well, like making an automobile. You take all the pieces and put them together one by one. First thing you know, you got an automobile or a murderer. And we got him.
Policeman on Pier: If you take a swim, I'd have to take a swim. Is that fair? Because you feel like killing yourself, I gotta get pneumonia.
Bert Pierce: She plays the piano like I shoot pool.
Veda Pierce: I don't like this house.

Mildred Pierce: Neither do I. But that's no reason to marry a man I'm not in love with.

Veda Pierce: Why not?

Mildred Pierce: Veda, does a new house mean so much to you that you would trade me for it?

Veda Pierce: I didn't mean it, Mother.
Monte Beragon: In the Beragon family, there is an old Spanish proverb: one man's poison is another man's meat.
Mildred Pierce: Get out Veda. Get your things out of this house right now before I throw them into the street and you with them. Get out before I kill you.
Monte Beragon: You know, Mildred, in the spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to what he's been thinking about all winter.

Mildred Pierce: It's a good thing California winters are so short.
Mildred Pierce: And just what do you do, Mr Beragon?

Monte Beragon: I loaf, in a decorative and highly charming manner.

Mildred Pierce: Is that all?

Monte Beragon: With me, loafing is a science.
Veda Pierce: It's your fault I'm the way I am. Help me!
Mildred Pierce: [to Mrs. Forrester] Having you in my family's a pretty dismal prospect.
Miriam Ellis: Maybe I'd better send for a beer... you know, they're full of vitamins.
Ida Corwin: [making a toast] To the men we've loved - the stinkers!
Policeman: Okay. Wheel her in.
[first lines]

Monte Beragon: [falling onto the floor uttering his dying words having just been shot] Mildred...

Mildred Pierce Quotes

Extended Reading

Mildred Pierce short comments

Elliot 2022-03-26 09:01:13

Great melodrama, but this plot is too badass!!! It can be stretched to a hard old Taiwanese-style melodrama that makes aunties cry to death. . .
Zackary 2022-03-23 09:03:15

8.5, adding family ethics drama style film noir, the use of mirrors and light is still the technique of conventional film noir, strong expressionist style and various alienated compositions, but in terms of character building and plot direction, it is indeed a typical melodrama form, which is quite integrated. Beneficial. Joan Crawford's acting skills are amazing, and the Oscar statuette is well deserved.