From the beginning, Mildred vowed that her daughter Veda would have all the things this newly blossoming post-war paradise could offer.
They lived in a charming Spanish Colonial house in Glendale, the kind of place where there were more children than cars on the street. Veda’s days were filled with stickball, piano lessons and ballet. If she likes a dress in a window display on Broadway or The Bulls, it will appear in a luxury box on her bed a few days later.
But this pampered childhood was not enough for Veda. He was looking for a big house, a fancier car, a very rich man – a quest for wealth that would destroy his life and make him one of LA’s biggest movie villains.
Veda died last week.
Well, the actor who played him, Ann Blyth, he died at 98. But this LA monster is so ingrained in my mind that I stopped distinguishing between an actor and an actress a long time ago.
Veda’s story is from “Mildred Pierce,” the classic novel by James M. Cain and the 1945 film by Joan Crawford.
The film is the result of film noir, full of dark shadows, shifting light and swaying palm trees. But it’s also a memorable — and much analyzed — reflection on class in the American century.
We meet the Pierces as Mildred struggles to make ends meet. Her husband can’t hold down a job, so she starts baking cakes. Eventually she gets a job as a waitress at a downtown LA coffee shop, but keeps it a secret because she’s afraid Veda will judge her. He finally achieved his American dream, opening a chain of restaurants with locations in Beverly Hills, Laguna Beach, Glendale and beyond.
Ann Blyth in 2013.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
But Veda doesn’t like Mildred’s rapid upward mobility, which highlights the blue blood who despises hard work. Veda likes to bully Mildred for being a middle-class toiler, undermining her mother’s work ethic: “I’m not really surprised. You never talk about your people—where you come from.”
Veda’s behavior takes a turn for the worse, including a fake pregnancy with the son of an old LA financier, leading to an epic fight. His monologue manages to be a diss to his mother and the city that gave him so much success.
He tells Mildred that he can’t wait to get away from “you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything that smells of grease.
Veda and Mildred’s arguments feel like the beginning of what could be a generational gap between the children born into postwar American life and their hardworking parents. At one point, Veda rejects Mildred’s excesses with a line that could be dialogue in a 1960s musical about teenage rebellion: “You still don’t understand, do you? You think new curtains are enough to make me happy.”
Ann Blyth as Veda and Joan Crawford as Mildred.
(Miramax Films)
But Veda is not someone who is determined to end wars or reject the materialism of her parents.
The movie “Mildred Pierce,” was released shortly after the end of World War II, so it’s easy to see it as an early commentary on postwar life. But Cain published his book in 1941. Critic David L. Ulin he wrote Mildred’s struggles and sacrifices feel more grounded in boom-LA between the wars.
The evil of the Veda can also feel a little out of date, especially in today’s world of children’s comics, “immigrants do it!” and respecting matters of wealth. But it’s still a proper morality tale – of the decadence that comes with wanting all the good things in LA and the pitfalls of parenting by giving your kids all the material things you lacked.
I challenge you to watch the movie today and not put it up there with LA movie villains of all time, sharing the stage with Noah Cross, Keyser Söze, Hans Gruber and … Joan Crawford.
Blyth lived a long life, working as an actress for decades and raising a family. But he knew he would always be known as the spoiled brat he played at 17. My colleague Susan King wrote a profile of Blyth in 2013, taking pains to separate the woman from the character.
Title: “I AM NOT LIKE THE VEDA.”
