• "Mildred Pierce" the novel, published in 1941 by James M. Cain, is the story of a Depression-era divorcee who supports her family by opening a chicken-and-waffles restaurant. Despite success, Mildred is willing to give up everything for her ungrateful daughter, who becomes an opera star. HBO's miniseries sticks closely to the plot of the novel. Joan Crawford played Mildred (and won the Oscar) for the 1945 movie, which was reimagined as a film noir and framed by a murder investigation; no murder occurs in the novel.
• "Stella Dallas" (1937) is a sob story starring Barbara Stanwyck as a working-class woman who gives up everything for her daughter (Anne Shirley), removing herself from the girl's life to let her advance and winding up on the outside looking in. It was updated in 1990 as "Stella," starring Bette Midler.
• "Imitation of Life," from a 1933 Fannie Hurst novel, was adapted twice for the screen. Claudette Colbert starred in 1934 as a widow who supports her daughter by teaming up with their maid (Louise Beavers) in a pancake restaurant. (The crux of the story has the maid's light-skinned daughter passing for white.) The 1959 version starred Lana Turner as the widow, who now becomes a Broadway star rather than making pancakes, and Sandra Dee as her daughter, who falls for mom's boyfriend (John Gavin).
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