More in Mildred Pierce & Feminist Work

[alice wellintown]

Greg, Garrett.  "The Many Faces of Mildred Pierce:  A Case Study of
Adaptation and the Studio System."

 Literature Film Quarterly.  23.4  (1995):  287-293.

This analytical essay discusses the major changes in plot development
and
character  meaning that James Cain's novel Mildred Pierce underwent on
its way to becoming a film.  The author attributes the many adaptations
to the need to adhere to the rigorous standards of the 1934 Production
code, the precursor to our modern day rating system.   The subsequent
portion of the essay provides a concise explanation of that production
code, while the remainder of the work explains the changes made in
length providing a deeper understanding of the  movie as it relates to
the novel.

On a prior and related thread see Adapting Henry James to the Screen,
Gender, Fiction, and Film. Raw, Laurence
One of Henry James's main achievements as a novelist was his ability
to demonstrate how the notions of "masculinity" and "femininity" are
socially constructed, depending on a variety of contradictory factors:
social, political, sexual, and economic. His unique capacity to
understand the ideological function of relationships often accepted as
"natural" in late nineteenth century culture resulted in works of
fiction that impress upon readers the oppressiveness inherent within
them. Most adaptations of literary classics, however, tend to be
influenced by Hollywood conventions that tend to reinforce dominant
notions of gender and heterosexual relations. Adapting a novel for
cinema or television is first and foremost a business enterprise,
where the screenwriter has to take into account the wishes of
conflicting interest groups: producers, stars, directors, and
spectators.

In Adapting Henry James to The Screen: Gender, Fiction and Film,
author Laurence Raw suggests that most James adaptations have sought
to shift attention away from the classical narrative to the
spectator's interaction with that narrative. Raw demonstrates that
while several adaptations have critically engaged with the subject of
gender relations, they have often ended up by reinforcing rather than
questioning accepted norms. Yet, there are instances where individual
directors and/or screenwriters have bucked the trend and directly
engaged with what people understand by 'masculine' and 'feminine'
behavior, thus focusing on how the notions of 'masculinity' and
'femininity' are socially constructed, not only in the societies
represented on screen, but in the spectators' world as well.

This book shows how changing priorities affected the ways in which
James's novels were translated to the screen, and how they examined
the theme of gender relations. Not only does this represent a new
departure for adaptation studies (which hitherto has largely focused
on issues of textual fidelity), but it is a particularly appropriate
methodology for studying James, who was perhaps the first modern
novelist to grapple with the often conflicting concerns of artistic
integrity and commercial potential.

Raw discusses most of the major adaptations, beginning with Berkeley
Square (1933) and culminating with James Ivory's The Golden Bowl. This
book also offers new readings of well-known adaptations and examines
works that have hitherto been critically neglected, such as The Lost
Moment (1947), The House In The Square (1951), The Haunting of Hell
House (1999), and four television versions of The Turn of the Screw
produced between 1974 and 1999. Consequently, Adapting Henry James to
the Screen is the most comprehensive survey yet published on Henry
James's work on film and television.