Possessed **** (1947, Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Raymond Massey) – Classic Movie Review 1331

The 1947 film noir movie Possessed is a riveting melodrama and portrait of crazy passion, starring the actress who best personified mental distress on screen – Joan Crawford, later saying it was the most difficult role she ever played.

Director Curtis Bernhardt’s compelling 1947 film noir movie Possessed is a highly emotional, riveting melodrama and portrait of crazy, doomed and perverted passion starring the actress who best personified mental distress – Joan Crawford. Though she always appeared to be iron-willed and steely-eyed, ironically she played unstable and mentally fragile characters brilliantly.

In one of her most complex, intelligent and satisfying performances, Crawford mesmerizingly conveys her character plunging into madness and murder through her unrequited obsession with her grudging ex-lover, handsome engineer Van Heflin. Crawford was nominated for Academy Award for Best Actress but lost to Loretta Young in The Farmer’s Daughter (1947).

Possessed starts with Crawford’s neurotic character Louise Howell being found wandering about dazed and confused in Los Angeles, where she collapses in a diner, unable to say anything other than ‘David’. But, after being taken to the psychiatric ward of a nearby hospital, she is persuaded to tell her story. Cue flashbacks.

Raymond Massey plays Dean Graham, the kind, rich man whom Louise worked for as a nurse to his invalid wife (Geraldine Brooks), living in their home. There Louise fell in love with their engineer neighbour David Sutton (Van Heflin), who loathes her smothering obsession with him, so busts up and leaves LA.

Much later, Sutton is working for Graham, who marries Louise, but then Sutton makes the mistake of taking a liking to Graham’s daughter Carol (Geraldine Brooks) instead of her. Louise hears voices, has hallucinations and believes her husband’s first wife is still alive. And then she tries to stop David and Carol getting married.

The movie stands or falls on Crawford’s virtuoso tour-de-force of a performance, while Heflin and Massey give her the most accomplished and polished star support. The story may be melodramatic and artificial, even quite hollow, but the performances triumph and make it seem credible and convincing, even quite moving. Stanley Ridges (as Dr Willard), John Ridgely (as Chief Investigator), Moroni Olsen (as Dr Ames), Nana Bryant (as Pauline Graham), Erskine Sandford (as Dr Ames), Gerald Perreau and Isabel Withers (as Nurse Rosen) are also in the cast.

Bernhardt provides the suitably feverish and forceful direction in the Germanic style. However, unfortunately, he accidentally kept referring to Crawford as ‘Bette’ as he had just finished filming A Stolen Life with Crawford’s hated arch-rival Bette Davis.

Silvia Richards and Ranald MacDougall base their screenplay on the story One Man’s Secret by Rita Weiman. Richards wrote the screenplay’s first draft, but producer Jerry Wald brought in MacDougall to do a complete rewrite after his success with Mildred Pierce (1945). However, Crawford was not happy, saying: ‘I will not go on with this picture unless the Epstein Boys rewrite my part.’ Warner Bros studio boss Jack Warner had to take Julius J Epstein and Philip Epstein off suspension and give them back pay for their further uncredited rewrite Crawford wanted.

Crawford visited mental wards and talked to psychiatrists to prepare for her role, later saying it was the most difficult role she ever played. It has no relation to Crawford’s 1931 film of this same title, Possessed. She tried but failed to convince Warner Bros to change the title to the bland The Secret to avoid confusion. So Crawford was the only star to appear in two different films with the same title, until two films called Quartet (1981) and Quartet (2012) both starred Maggie Smith.

Unusually, for this kind of film in the era, Possessed was entered into the 1947 Cannes Film Festival. It was a hit earning over $3 million worldwide on highish $2.5 million cost.

Crawford did win the Academy Award for Best Actress for Mildred Pierce in 1946.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1331

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