One thing about the music that bugs me.....

Well, I just did a little research and may have answered my own question. It seems Max Steiner marketed the theme as "It Can't Be Wrong", complete with lyrics, after receiving the Academy Award for the score in "Now, Voyager" (1942). I noticed several renditions of it on Youtube. So I suppose Mr. Steiner was just trying to get some further mileage from a melody which obviously had been received well by the public during those three years between "Now, Voyager" and "Mildred Pierce".

Life's a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!

Saw "Mildred Pierce" a couple years ago but didn't pay much attention to the music. Watched it again recently and made the connection to "Now, Voyager." This time around, the music kept pulling me out of the scene. Found it to be a major distraction to an otherwise terrific movie.

"Perfidia" turns up everywhere.

It all makes me think of Bugs Bunny cartoons.

That bothers me EVERY. TIME.

And big as Steiner was, I'm still surprised he got away with putting that in two A pictures. It wasn't rare in those days to for patrons to sit through the movie more than once - not like today, when the theater is emptied after every showing. So there would be plenty of opportunity for movie fans to have picked up on that and find it irritating.

Actually, having the music played on the record player sets the scene and the era. Classical composers often reused their own music (or that of others, for that matter), and Steiner was classically-trained. He no doubt knew what he was doing - I don't think it was a matter of not being able to come up with more music, for instance.

In my case, self-absorption is completely justified.

A lot of times there was considerable time pressure; the studio may have encouraged him to do it just to get the film completed faster.