The Beach House from Joan Crawford’s “Mildred Pierce”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on APRIL 3, 2011

With all the attention that the new HBO miniseries “Mildred Pierce” has been getting, I thought it would be fun to revisit the original classic from 1945. I hadn’t seen it since I was a teenager and all I really remembered about it was Joan Crawford, her fur coat, and the murder in the beach house.

Watching it again, I was struck by how amazing all the sets and costumes were. But before we get to the famous beach house, let’s take a look at the Spanish bungalow the Pierce family lived in. (Warning for those of you who haven’t seen this whodunit–spoilers ahead!)

The Pierce Family Home in Glendale

Mildred Pierce is a classic example of 1940s film noir. It opens with a murder and then we see what happened in a series of flashbacks until the mystery of who fired the gun is revealed at the end. The famous tagline for the movie was “Please Don’t Tell Anyone What Mildred Pierce Did!”

Mildred’s house on Corvallis Street in Glendale is shown as a one-story Spanish-style bungalow, but the interior set has a staircase leading to a second story with the bedrooms.

Here’s a publicity shot from the movie of Pierce family–Bert, Mildred, and their daughters Veda and Kay. (In the remake, the youngest daughter is named Ray. Since the remake is based more closely on the novel by James M. Cain, I assume she was Ray in the book and it was changed for the first movie. Does anyone know for sure?)

Joan Crawford was 40 and considered a “has-been” after a string of flops at MGM. Michael Curtiz had to be convinced to cast her. He originally wanted Bette Davis, but she turned it down.

Shirley Temple was originally considered for the part of Mildred’s older daughterVeda, but it went to Ann Blyth instead. She was 17 at the time and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

Bruce Bennett, who played Mildred’s well-meaning husband Bert, was an Olympic shot-putter in the 1928 games. He retired from acting in 1960 and became the sales manager of a vending machine company.

Mildred says she feels like she was born in the kitchen. When times get tough, she gets cookin’! After husband Bert loses his job as a real estate agent (“Suddenly no one was buying any more”), she makes ends meet by baking cakes.

As it says in the trailer for the miniseries, “She gave her daughter everything. But everything wasn’t enough.” Boy, that’s an understatement. The only time we see a truly good side of Veda is in her interactions with her little sister Kay, who she actually seems to care for. When Kay dies of pneumonia, Veda is heartbroken.

The sisters share a bedroom at the top of the stairs. In this scene, Mildred is peering through the open door and overhears Veda complaining about how cheap and ugly the dress is that her mother worked so hard to buy for her.

Tragically, Mildred refuses to listen to everyone who warns her about Veda and continues to spoil her rotten. When Kay dies, Mildred clutches Veda and says, “Please, God, don’t let anything ever happen to Veda!”

Evan Rachel Wood was cast as Veda for the new miniseries and definitely has the right look for the part. Even when she smiles, she looks like she’s up to no good:

While we’re on the topic of the remake, here’s a shot taken as they filmed in the Gables area of Merrick, New York, which passes for Glendale in 1935 (more info and photos at Awards Daily):

I’ve only seen the first two parts of the miniseries so far, so maybe things will pick up. But when I was watching it last week with my husband, his comment was, “Apparently time moved a lot more slowly back then.”

I’m afraid it probably does move a little too slowly for most viewers, which may be why theratings have been such a disappointment. I’m a sucker for period pieces like this, though, so I’m sticking with it.

They went for a more realistic Depression-era look with the sets than the original movie did (photos via HBO).

There was no murder in the novel, by the way. In fact, a lot of things were changed for the original movie to make it more palatable for 1940s audiences. Downplaying Mildred’s affairs, for instance. The new miniseries is sticking much more closely to the book than the movie did.

Here’s Kate Winslet as Mildred in her kitchen, baking one of her popular cakes to sell:

Mildred’s Restaurant:

One of the most memorable images from the original movie was the stylish restaurant that Mildred opened, with her name scrolled across the top in lights:

A test shot taken of the interior of Mildred’s restaurant:

Mildred’s office at the restaurant is so big that you know she’s hit the big-time!

The Beragon Beach House (aka “Scene of the Crime”)

Monte Beragon’s Beach House was actually owned by the film’s director, Michael Curtiz. It was built in 1929 and stood on Latigo Shore Drive in Malibu. Sadly, it collapsed into the ocean after a week of heavy storms in January 1983.

After Wally Fay (played by Jack Carson) finds the corpse in the beach house and runs outside, the cops yell, “Hey, you, stop right there!” and then shoot at him. They don’t know who he is or even that there’s a body inside the house, so it always makes me laugh that they immediately draw their guns.

The sunroom is a little odd in that it has walls and windows, but no roof or door.

Monte keeps a closet full of bathing suits for unexpected lady visitors. He explains, “They belong to my sisters.”

Mildred: “There’s nothing like having a large family! All of your sisters seem to be my size.”

Monte: “I like them your size. Here’s to brotherly love.”

If you’re watching the remake on HBO, you probably noticed the beach house isn’t nearly as glam in it as it was in the original. It’s more like a beach shack, which I found kind of disappointing.

The front entry has a big, gorgeous window overlooking the water:

A test shot of the beach house set taken before filming began (via the Joan Crawford Encyclopedia, where you can see more):

Zachary Scott played wealthy playboy Monte Beragon when he was 31. He never really topped the success of “Mildred Pierce” in his career and died of a brain tumor 20 years later.

Mildred’s first “date” with the suave Monte doesn’t end with the swim…

Filming that scene:

The house has its own bar in the lower level. Here Wally makes Mildred a drink, not knowing the real reason why she brought him there:

Jack Carson, who played Fay, would disappear from Hollywood for weeks at a time to secretly perform as a clown in the circus. Audiences never knew it was him, and he enjoyed the anonymity. “They loved me and my routines,” he said.

Here’s a shot of the bar from the other side of the room, the night Mildred walks in and catches her daughter in her husband Monte’s arms:

Veda confronts Monte after he tells her he has no intentions of marrying “a spoiled little brat like you.”

Veda responds by shooting him, repeatedly. With his dying breath, he gasps, “Mildred!”

Joan Crawford won her only Oscar for her role as Mildred Pierce. Check out the original trailer for it:

Are you watching the new miniseries on HBO? How do you think it compares to the original?

Click Here for the list of all of the movies I’ve featured, including more classics like Auntie Mame and Gone With the Wind.

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Mary Haines’ House in “The Women”

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Meet Me in St. Louis: The Victorian on Kensington Ave.

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on DECEMBER 13, 2009

Acouple of years ago, I was lucky enough to take a tour of about ten historic homes in St. Louis. It was in the Lafayette Square neighborhood–an entire block filled with grand old homes like the ones from Meet Me in St. Louis. I thought I had died and gone to house heaven!

If you’re a long-time reader of my blog, you may remember that my original header was a photo I took there. Watching this movie is like going back in time and seeing how that neighborhood must have looked like in its heyday.

The story takes place at the turn of the century in St. Louis, Missouri, when the World’s Fair was right around the corner (1904). The Smith family lived in this grand Second Empire Victorian home on 5135 Kensington Avenue with their five children (and Grandpa!).

Kensington Avenue, lined with beautiful, stately homes, was constructed at great cost by MGM for the movie. Known as “St. Louis Street,” it can also be seen in films like Cheaper by the Dozen,In the Good Old Summertime, and Good News.

Judy Garland was 21 years old when she played Esther Smith. She famously turned down the role at first because she was tired of playing the ingenue and wanted a “grown-up role.” She was finally talked into it by the screenwriter, Irving Brecher, who was a friend of hers.

The movie changed her life because she met–and married–the director, Vincente Minnelli. (His real name: the less romantic-sounding Lester Minnelli.)

Rose Smith was played by newcomer Lucille Bremer, who only spent four years in Hollywood before retiring from show business to start a family.

A lot of the action takes place around this beautiful staircase in the entry:

At the end of the movie, when they are packing up their belongings to move to New York, we get this view of the staircase looking kind of bleak and sad with the paintings removed:

The movie was based on Sally Benson’s collection of short stories for The New Yorker. Benson (whose maiden name was Smith) wrote about her life on Kensington Avenue where her family lived from 1891-1910. The stories were adapted for film by Irving Brecher andFred F. Finklehoffe . She helped the filmmakers get all of the period details right, from the clothes to the sets.

Benson’s home in St. Louis was demolished in 1994 after standing empty and uninhabitable for years. Here’s what it looked like:

Here’s where it used to stand, on what is now an empty lot (photo taken by Poptarticus, who has more photos of it on her site, and sent to me by Holly):

Here is a house that just sold on the real Kensington Avenue, a few doors down from where Benson lived. It was built in 1903, and you can see similarities to the illustration above (asking price in 2009: a paltry $24,000):

Back to the movie, which is so much prettier than reality…

In this scene, the family gathers to discuss the move to New York City. The dad, played by Leon Ames, has decided not to take the job in New York after all because he realizes how important home is to his family.

In reality, Sally Benson’s dad had no such revelation, and her family did move to New York, leaving their beloved Kensington Avenue house behind. They didn’t return for the World’s Fair.

A sequel called Meet Me in Manhattan was talked about, but it never came about.

I was surprised to read that Leon Ames, who played Mr. Smith, was only 42 when it was filmed.

I love all the detail over the fireplace and the windows flanking it:

The dining room:

Rose gets a long-distance phone call during dinner, which is a big deal (I love how they shouted into the phone at each other). The family listens in:

There’s a pass-through into the kitchen that the maid used (Marjorie Main, of Ma and Pa Kettle fame):

A glimpse of the back hall that leads to the kitchen:

“Nowadays,” Esther Smith says in the film, “you can’t get a maid for less than $12 a month!”

I read that pots and pans were usually stored on open shelves because they were greasy. Closed cabinets would attract mice and other critters.

I wonder if there was really a bird in that birdcage by the window?

The movie’s costume designer reportedly created many of the movies costumes right out of the Sears & Roebuck catalog from the time period.

The house as it looked at Christmas time (the striped awnings are gone):

The snowman scene wasn’t the most realistic in the movie. There were no tracks in the snow where they walked in it, and no sign of snow having been scooped from the ground to build their snowmen. But it sure was pretty to look at! Love the neighbor’s house in the distance:

The upstairs landing:

A scene was cut that had taken place inside the master bedroom. Unfortunately, the film they took no longer exists. I would have loved to have seen that room!

The bathroom was only in the movie for less than a minute, but it wowed me with that window!

Grandpa’s room–with all of his hats:

Tootie, the youngest Smith, was memorably played by Margaret O’Brien. She turned 7 during the filming, and went on to star as Beth in Little Women a few years later.

Sally Benson, the author of the stories that the movie was based on, was called “Tootie” as a child. In real life, Tootie’s older sister Agnes pulled most of the pranks attributed to Tootie in the film.

Esther’s room is so girly, there’s even lace on the mantel:

This scene between Esther and Rose primping at the vanity mirror was the first one Minnelli shot. I read that he had to do many takes because he couldn’t get Judy Garland to be as “sincere” as he wanted her character to be. Once she understood what he was going for, the rest of filming went much more smoothly.

The movie took 5 months to shoot, from December 1943-April 1944.

Some of the kids’ antics on Halloween night seem bizarre to us today. Instead of trick-or-treating for candy, the kids carried bags of flour to the homes of their “enemies.” Back then, if you hit someone with flour on Halloween night, you could say that you “killed them.” Grandpa advises Tootie to get the flour wet first so it’ll stick.

The night was filled with mischief and bonfires in the streets. (I think I prefer our current Halloween traditions…)

Tootie pulls some pretty serious pranks and tells some pretty big lies that cause trouble on Halloween night. Her punishment? She only gets one bowl of ice cream for a treat. That’ll teach her!

The house in summer (at the end of the film):

All the Smith women were dressed in white and ready to go to the World’s Fair:

Sweet Sunday Mornings is a blog that does a really nice job with movie posts, including one about Meet Me In St. Louis that I enjoyed. She also gets into the costumes, which is interesting. I used a few of her screen shots here.

Here’s a photo of how the Meet Me in St. Louis house looked years later, in 1970, just before it was demolished:

St Louis Street, the MGM back lot where the streets were lined with Victorian homes built forMeet Me in St. Louis, is now sadly gone.

In 1970, MGM auctioned off most of its property, including St. Louis Street. Lot 3 was 80 acres with a lake, where they filmed Meet Me in St. Louis and all the MGM features. Now it’s lined with condos instead. (Thanks to Derek for the photos and information. I swear he knows everything!)

Vincente Minnelli’s childhood memories of his grandparents’ house in Delaware (below) was the inspiration for the house in the movie. It’s where he spent a lot of time when he was growing up. Vincente and Judy’s daughter Liza Minnelli says he wanted the house in Meet Me in St. Louis to be similar, with a “rolling front yard and big front porch.” (Read more about ithere.)

Here’s a clip of Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to her little sister Tootie (Margaret O’Brien)–the first time it appeared in a film. If this doesn’t get you in the holiday mood, nothing will!

Have you taken the Christmas Movie Quiz yet? This was the answer to question #10! I’ll be featuring the movie from #8 next Monday.

P.S. My Hooked on Holiday House Tours party is still in full swing. Feel free to add your link if you haven’t already, and check out what everyone else has to share!

Visit my TV/Movie Houses page for links to more that I’ve featured, fromPollyanna to Practical Magic.

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