Summary
Mildred goes up and puts Veda's dress on her bed, as Bert complains that Mildred is raising their children as if they have more money, threatening to slap Veda for being so fresh. "You're trying to buy love from those kids, but it won't work," Bert says, as Mildred goes into the kitchen. He complains about the fact that they got Veda a piano and pretty dresses, but she doesn't actually have any musical talent. "Veda has talent, just ask any of the neighbors," says Mildred.
Bert then talks about Kay, and the fact that she just wants to play sports, but Mildred pressures her into doing ballet. "What if I want them to amount to something? I'd do anything for those kids," she says, when suddenly the phone rings. It's Maggie Biederhof calling for Bert, and when he takes the phone, he scolds her to call him another time.
Sullenly, Mildred continues to make some baked goods and scolds Bert for the fact that he's having an affair with Maggie. "She means nothing to me," he insists, but Mildred is unconvinced, telling Bert to go apologize to his mistress, lest she refuse to play gin rummy with him. Then, referring to their children, Mildred tells Bert, "I'm determined to do the best I can for them. If I can't do it with you, I'll do it without you."
After a brief confrontation, Bert threatens to go to Maggie's house and Mildred kicks him out, once and for all. He leaves, and Mildred sobs. The scene shifts and we see Veda approaching her tomboyish sister as she plays sports with a group of boys. "You act like a peasant," Veda tells Kay, but Kay is unfazed. "Wait till you get interested in boys," Veda says, to which Kay responds, "I got over that when I was eight." As they approach their house, the girls see their father getting in the car and leaving.
The girls come in and greet their mother, as Mildred puts a cake in a box for a neighbor. Veda tells her mother she's learned a new piece, "Valse Brilliante," then mentions that she saw Bert leaving as they came home. Mildred deflects and asks Veda to play her new piece. As Mildred scolds Kay for eating food and getting her clothes dirty, Kay says, "I know I know, I should've been a boy." As Veda plays the piece on the piano, she asks Mildred where their father went, and Mildred continues to avoid answering directly.
When Veda asks if their father has left for good, Mildred announces to the girls that they are separating. Veda asks what they quarreled about, and Mildred tells her that she will tell her one day, but not now. As Mildred walks away, Veda tells her mother that if it's because of Maggie Biederhof, she is firmly on Mildred's side, as Mrs. Biederhof is "middle-class." Mildred insists that it wasn't about that, then tells Veda that her dress is in her room.
Excitedly, Veda runs upstairs and tries on her dress. As Mildred follows behind, she hears Veda complaining about the dress in her room and looks deflated. The scene shifts and we see Mildred looking over her bills, as she narrates, in voiceover to Inspector Peterson, that she was broke, saying, "For the first time in my life, I was lonely." As she begins to take a gun out of the desk, the doorbell rings, and she goes to answer it. It's Wally, looking for Bert.
"If it's important, you'd better find him yourself. He isn't living here anymore," Mildred tells Bert. Wally walks into the room, seemingly delighted that Mildred is now single, and asks her to make him a scotch and soda. "You know I wouldn't drop dead at the idea of marrying you," he tells her, smiling, and invites her to have a drink. When she turns it down, he tells her that she'll drink with him eventually, and tells her that she's in a desperate situation, as "a grass widow with two children to support."
As Wally tries to make the move on Mildred, she pushes him away continually, telling him to try and be her friend rather than her lover. When he doesn't take the hint, Mildred hands him his hat and sends him on his way. As he leaves, he promises that he'll keep trying, and she sends him out the door.
After Wally leaves, Mildred goes upstairs, where she finds Veda reading in bed. Veda tells her mother that Kay cried herself to sleep, then asks if Bert is going to marry Mrs. Biederhof. When Mildred says she doesn't know, Veda reveals that she heard Mildred talking to Wally and that she thinks they ought to get married so that the family can have a maid and a limousine like they used to. "I don't like this house," she says, but Mildred tells her she cannot marry someone she doesn't love. As Veda leans on her mother, telling her she wants to have nice things, Mildred promises that she will get her anything she wants, and that they will eventually have nice things. As Mildred tucks Veda in, she tells her she loves her, but Veda tells her that they ought not be "sticky" about it, suggesting her mother leave her alone.
The next few days, Mildred goes in search of a job, but everywhere she looks she is told she needs more experience. When she goes to a restaurant for a cup of tea. As she is seated, she sees two of the waitresses arguing, when the manager intervenes to stop them. After breaking them up, the manager apologizes to Mildred, telling her they're short-staffed, which leads Mildred to ask for a job. Smirking, the manager, Ida—the woman whom Mildred saw at the police station—walks her to the back room and tells her she has to buy white shoes and fits her with a uniform.
We see Mildred working as a waitress, making minor errors in her early days. In voiceover, Mildred says, "In three weeks, I was a good waitress," and then, "In six weeks I felt as though I'd worked in a restaurant all my life, and in three months I was one of the best waitresses in the place." At home, she bakes pies for the restaurant, along with the help of a maid. Lottie, the maid, marvels that Mildred can work so hard, and Mildred simply says, "It keeps me thin."
In a montage, we see Veda taking singing lessons with a good teacher, and Kay dancing at a good ballet school. "Only one thing worried me," narrates Mildred, "That some day, Veda would find out that I was a waitress."
One day, Mildred arrives home to find Lottie dressed in a maid uniform, which Lottie tells her Veda told her to wear "in case I have to answer the door." Mildred finds her daughters in the next room; Veda is playing the piano and singing, while Kay dances, wearing makeup and an elaborate costume. Exasperated, Mildred sends Kay upstairs with Lottie to wash up, before confronting Veda about where she found the uniform she gave Lottie.
Veda lies and tells Mildred she was looking for handkerchiefs, but Mildred insists that she was snooping. "You've been snooping around ever since I got this job trying to figure out what it is. And now you know. You know, don't you?" says Mildred. Veda plays dumb, but Mildred is sure that Veda knows that the uniform belongs to her. "I took the only job I could get so you and your sister could eat and have a place to sleep and some clothes on your backs," says Mildred.
When Veda tells her mother that she's degrading the family, suggesting that perhaps waiting tables is natural to her, and cruelly suggesting that it's why her father left them, Mildred slaps her daughter across the face, then bursts into tears and apologizes. She tells Veda she's taking notes so that she can eventually open a restaurant of her own. "You mean we'll be rich?" says Veda.
The next day, Mildred goes to visit Wally to ask him about opening a restaurant. She tells him about a house at a busy intersection that seems like it hasn't been lived in for years, and gives him the address. Looking it up, Wally notes that the house is owned by the Beragon estate, a "well-to-do Pasadena family that got a property on it." He realizes that the Beragons have already lost some properties to back taxes, which suggests that they're actually "broke." He makes a call to Mr. Beragon and affects a more upper-crust voice, telling the owner that he has a client who's interested.
They head down to the house, with Wally telling Mildred to let him do all the talking. They arrive at the beach house from the beginning of the film, and a servant tells them to wait in a room for Beragon. Wally makes the proposition that Mildred start using the property and slowly pay for it as her restaurant becomes more and more successful. Wally posits that it will take her about a year to make the $10,000 he's asking for the house.
Analysis
In flashback, we see a much different Mildred than the one we met in a fur coat on the docks. In contrast to the mysterious, seemingly diabolical glamor puss of the beginning, Mildred in flashback is a devoted housewife, always slaving away in the kitchen and trying to give to her daughters, even when her husband Bert is flailing professionally. The contrast between the Mildred at the beach house and the Mildred making pies in her suburban kitchen only heightens the mystery of the film, as the viewer wonders how the protagonist can have changed so much.
A marked contrast between the Mildred of the beginning of the film and the Mildred in the flashback is that in flashback, she is portrayed as a devoted mother who is more concerned with her children than anything else. She is a mother first, and her husband disapproves of her doting on the girls like they are special. At the beginning of the film, Mildred seems like an exceedingly independent woman, even if that independence stems from a certain amount of desperation. In flashback, however, she seems self-sacrificing and fanatically maternal.
As we soon learn, Bert is not entirely wrong about the imbalance of power between them and their children. Veda, in particular, seems sweet enough, but soon reveals herself to be a complete brat. Pretentious and aspirational, she is a teenager who disparages others as "middle class" and despises the dress her mother sacrificed so much to buy her. She is ungrateful of her mother's attention and love, and Mildred is clearly unable to stand up for herself within the dynamic. Her love for her children is expressed completely through her desire to provide for them, which is undercut by their ungratefulness.
With her husband gone, Mildred is rendered particularly vulnerable in the world, forced to contend with a workforce that will not accept her, a world of lusty men whose affections she does not return, and a bratty daughter whom she does not realize is exploiting her. Wally visits her house and makes unwanted attempts at winning her affection, and she is forced to take a job as a waitress as a last resort, a post that her pretentious teenaged daughter, Veda, looks down on.
In this portion of the film, Veda emerges as an antagonist of sorts. Despite her youth and beauty, and her apparent innocence, she is a source of stress for her mother. After taking the job as a waitress, Mildred fears what her daughter will think more than anyone else. This imbalance of power is complex, in that it is partially due to the fact that Mildred has spoiled her children and encouraged their snobbish aspirations. Veda, however, is markedly cruel in addition to being pretentious. When she learns her mother is a waitress, she attributes her mother's lowly status in society to her familial background and suggests that this is why Bert left her. Rather than love and support her mother, Veda is cruel and callous, and seems to care only for becoming rich and refined.
