Free Thinking

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Free Thinking: Mildred Pierce

James M Cain

Mildred Pierce

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Mildred Pierce

Matthew Sweet and guests discuss James M Cain's classic novel and its film adaptation.

Crime writers Denise Mina and Laura Lippman and academics Sarah Churchwell and Lizzie Mackarel discuss James M Cain's classic novel Mildred Pierce and its 1945 film adaptation.

Mildred Pierce, James M Cain's 1941 novel, was turned into a noir film starring Joan Crawford which earnt her an Academy Award. Matthew Sweet and his guests crime writers Denise Mina and Laura Lippman plus academics Sarah Churchwell and Lizzie Mackarel have been re-watching the film and comparing it with the novel as they consider how the social realism and depiction of suburban female life differs from his other books which became hit films The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity. 

Laura Lippman's novels include the PI Tess Monaghan series and standalone titles such as Lady in the Lake, Sunburn and After I'm Gone.
Denise Mina's crime novels have won many prizes and her latest The Less Dead has been shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award.
Sarah Churchwell is Professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities at the University of London and the author of books including The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe and Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The Great Gatsby


You can find other Free Thinking discussions of film and the relationship between novels and film on the programme website including 
Jonathan Coe's recent novel looking at Billy Wilder and his late films https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000p1dx 
Michael Caine in the film Get Carter made by from Ted Lewis's 1970 novel Jack's Return Home https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mt05
Tarkovsky's Stalker https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0775023 
Rashomon and the writing of Akutagawa, which led to the film by Kurosawa https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b01vwk 
Marnie and Winston Graham's novel  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b098n4j4
Many are in this playlist called Landmarks https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jwn44 

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

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