Mildred Pierce: James M. CainMildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone deep core of toughness and determination. She used those attributes to survive her husband's desertion in post Depression America with two children and to claw her way out of poverty, becoming a successful businesswoman. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men and an unreasoning devotion to her monstrous, selfish daughter Made into a classic film noir starring Joan