Outspoken & Freckled

Since the beginning of cinema popular books and novels have been converted to screenplays in an attempt to draw audiences to big screens to watch stories that were familiar to them.  Not to mention books have always been a wonderful resource for film material.  During the time when Michael Curtiz’, Mildred Pierce was produced for the big screen in 1945, the height of the studio system – or what has come to be known as Hollywood’s Golden Age – studio heads devoted entire departments to finding stories worth telling.  Once the stories were found, from novels, books, short stories, serials or directly from news headlines, these would be matched with the famous directors and popular stars of the time.  In this sense, Mildred Pierce is a typical example of that system at work.  An outstanding example, I might add.

Converting a novel to a screen adaptation can be a long…