Possessed (1947)

You won't be disappointed!

Please don't spend money on this.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

A Joan Crawford's star-vehicle directed by German émigré Curtis Bernhardt, in POSSESSED (not the namesake film Crawford made in 1931 with Clark Gable), Crawford plays Louise Howell, an erotomaniac possessed by her desire over David Sutton (Heflin), an engineer who cannot reciprocate her with the same obsession.The film opens with a frazzled Louise roaming in the streets of Los Angeles, unable to utter another word besides "David!", she succumbs to a stupor and is taken to the hospital, under the treatment of Dr. Willard (Ridges), she lets up her stories in flashback from the falling-out between her and David, he considers her as a mere intermezzo in his life, yet she contends to be his theme song (aka, Schumann's Carnaval, Op. 9 piano solo), the music cue plays a significant role in the later stage which compounds Louise's descent into psychosis. A trained nurse hired to minister to the invalid wife of the wealthy industrialist Dean Graham (Massey, a salt-of-the-earth ilk but also mulish enough to seek the impossible) and after a horrific event crops up near the family's lake house, leaving Dean a widower, Louise choose to stay on with the Graham family in Washington D.C. on the strength of seeing David again, since Dean is his boss. When David reappears in her life, Louise goes all out to reignite their romance, but the latter is completely out of love with her, humiliated and disillusioned, she accepts Dean's marriage proposal in spite of both twig that she isn't in love with him. Loveless-but-affluent marriage usually functions well for most people, but Louise receives a bolt from the blue when she finds out David and her step-daughter Carol (a debutante Brooks) have become an item, which is the tipping point driving her into further hallucination where reality and unreality has blurred their finitude. Two murderous occurrences are confected, only one transpires to be veridical (the other sending up its blasé staircase confrontation trope), but the ending, nevertheless, ladles out enough psychobabble to augur everything will be fine for the misfortune-ridden Lousie. Nabbing her second Oscar nomination, Ms. Crawford makes for a barnstorming presence, histrionic occasionally, but speaking of a tarnished soul desperately hanging on her tapering pride, she is magnificent to behold (decked by jewelry and finery if she sees fit), less savory if she has to play the smitten lover against a miscast Hefin, whose thuggish comportment is a far cry from a mathematic engineer, one basically feels apathetic to his character's comeuppance, and wonders what women see in him is so deadly irresistible? That said, POSSESSED shows up Bernhardt's expressionist flourish in his spooky orchestration that torments Louise's sanity and boosts a strong showcase for its middle-age conscious star, who refuses to be sidelined, neither by the man she yens for nor by the ageist and sexist system, into which she has been sinking her teeth for over two decades starting from its bottom rung.

..sang Cypress Hill in the 1990s. That song is clearly the inspiration for this 1947 film starring Joan Crawford (Louise) as a lunatic. She is obsessed with Van Heflin (David) and this obsession transfers itself into the 'possessed' referred to in the film's title. She seems fine. She's not. At first, you may think she's just exhibiting typical woman jealousy, etc. Nope. She goes a step further. Heflin doesn't want to know about her and that is his BIG mistake.The dialogue is realistic, confrontational and amusing and the cast are all good in this film that is, unfortunately, very slow to start. Keep with it and it develops through flashback segments as Crawford lies in a hospital bed. At one point, the film veers into the spooky horror genre and I yelled out at one point when an intercom kept buzzing. There are some clever techniques used and the story does have a few twists in the way it is recounted. I enjoyed it. Schizophrenia is depicted in a much cleverer and clearer manner in this film when compared to Humphrey Bogart having a stab at it in "The Two Mrs Carrolls" from the same year. Crawford is more adept than Bogey.The other Joan Crawford films worth checking out from the 1940s are "Strange Cargo" (1940), "A Woman's Face" (1941) and "Mildred Pierce" (1945).

This story of romantic obsession, mental breakdown and murder provided Joan Crawford with one of the most memorable and successful movies of her career and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress (1947). Her portrayal of a woman who loses touch with reality, experiences hallucinations and mistakenly believes that she's responsible for the deaths of two people is powerful and convincing, especially as the audience sees so much of what's happening through her eyes. German expressionist compositions provide a fitting backdrop to the action and contribute strongly to the atmosphere, which is often moody and tense.When Louise Howell (Joan Crawford) is admitted to a hospital, she's initially unresponsive and her condition is assessed by a psychiatrist who later uses drug therapy to find out what circumstances led to such a dramatic deterioration of her mental state. It's soon revealed that Louise had been deeply in love with a construction engineer called David Sutton (Van Heflin) who tired of her possessiveness and decided to end their relationship. Shortly after, David had left to work in Canada.Louise continued to work as a nurse caring for the bedridden wife of a wealthy oil man called Dean Graham (Raymond Massey) and a little while later, tragedy struck when Mrs Graham was found drowned in the lake near to the Graham residence. Louise continued her employment with Dean and became the governess for his young son Wynn (Gerald Perreau) but her relationship with Dean's twenty year old daughter Carol (Geraldine Brooks) became difficult after she accused Louise of being her father's mistress.When David returned to work on a project with Dean, Louise had tried to revive their relationship but was given the brush off and soon after married Dean. The anguish that she'd experienced over David and the feelings of guilt she'd had about Mrs Graham's death increased even further when Carol and David became romantically involved and the pace of her mental deterioration accelerated dramatically."Possessed" is a fine psychological melodrama, which features good acting performances and exploits the great interest in Freudian themes which was widespread in the 1940s. The nature of the plot and Joan Crawford's intensity make this movie absolutely riveting throughout.

Psychologically disturbed, Joan Crawford (as Louise Howell) is found wandering the streets of Los Angeles. "David," she mutters, "I'm looking for David." Awakening in an asylum, Ms. Crawford unravels her story… In flashback, we meet Crawford as a relatively level-headed Washington nurse; in a rustic northwestern estate, she cares for the mentally unbalanced wife of wealthy Raymond Massey (as Dean Graham). Mr. Massey's wife thinks Crawford is having an affair with her husband, but Crawford is really seeing World War II veteran Van Heflin (as David Sutton). Crawford loves Heflin so bad it hurts, but he isn't interested in commitment. Heflin tells her, "I can't love you the way you love me." Crawford says she'll wait forever, but Heflin says never.Heflin's rejection distresses Crawford. Then, Massey's wife drowns. And, faced with losing both her lover and livelihood, Crawford accepts Massey's marriage proposal. But, Crawford is still "Possessed" by her love for Heflin. He returns to romance step-daughter Geraldine Brooks (as Carol), who thinks Crawford killed her mother to marry Massey… The melodramatic plot continues, and remains fascinating throughout. This is mid-period Crawford at her very best. Superb in a tailor-made production, Crawford stands head and shoulders above the rest of the 1947 "Academy Award" nominees for "Best Actress" of 1947. Director Curtis Bernhardt and photographer Joseph Valentine match Germanic-inspired "film noir" with their star in stylish black and white.********* Possessed (7/26/47) Curtis Bernhardt ~ Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Raymond Massey, Geraldine Brooks