Classic Film Guide

Possessed (1947) - full review!

Not to be confused with the 1931 film, also starring Joan Crawford, of the same name! Directed by Curtis Bernhardt, and co-written by Ranald MacDougall (Mildred Pierce (1945)), this (cutting edge for its time) psychological drama features Crawford's second of three Best Actress Oscar nominated performances, and second of three pairings with writer MacDougall (she'd won for "Pierce" two years earlier). Crawford plays a disturbed woman who shows up in an unfamiliar city muttering names and words with no discernible meaning until a psychiatrist is able to uncover their origins using patience and drug treatment. The story he uncovers, during flashback storytelling, is this:

Crawford was a nurse for a wealthy family that was also secretly in love with a confirmed bachelor, "in love with his work, and himself" engineer named David, played by Van Heflin (it's a mystery to me what women ever saw in this actor), who lives across the lake from the family's vacation home. Mrs. Graham is the invalid, confined to a wheelchair, to which Crawford's character Louise attends. David tires of Louise's overbearing possessive love and breaks off their affair. A distraught Louise returns to the Grahams and is chastised by Mr. Graham, Dean (Raymond Massey), for being absent, but she explains that it was her day off before she goes to attend to Mrs. Graham. An accident or a murder, it's intentionally a mystery, occurs causing Mrs. Graham to drown in the lake. The Grahams twenty-one year old daughter Carol (Geraldine Brooks) & preteen son return while an inquiry, by the coroner & Lieutenant Harker (John Ridgely), determines it was an accidental death.

Dean hires David, then later falls for Louise, though she still loves David. Not knowing this, Dean still accepts Louise's respect for him as enough, hoping that will eventually grow into love. Dean marries Louise causing resentment from Carol who, not only blames Louise for her mother's death, but thinks she's a gold digger. However, Louise is able to smooth it over and the two become friends until Carol starts dating David, despite Louise's cautions. With the stress of it all, Louise's psychological condition deteriorates and she starts imagining things. As a former nurse, she has some realization of what is happening and goes to see a doctor, who confirms her diagnosis. Without giving away what happens next, or the ending, suffice it to say that Crawford gives a terrifically credible performance of a mentally unbalanced woman who goes over the edge. The various doctors are played by Stanley Ridges, Moroni Olsen, and Erskine Sanford.

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