Possessed (1947) (6/10)

The Joan Crawford of the late 1940s was very different from the young flapper of the 20s or the shop, professional or show girl of the 30s. An important difference was that she had moved from MGM to Warners and the post war period was darker, the film noir style infiltrated every type of melodrama and women's picture. It isn't surprising that Crawford's comeback picture for which she won an Academy Award : Mildred Pierce (1945) and some of the films that followed have been called noirs.

Possessed (1947) is described on the DVD cover and in the featurette on the disc as the quintessential film noir. It certainly has the style though there are no trench-coated detectives and oddly enough no femme fatales either. In this film and previously Mildred Pierce (1945) Crawford is very much the victim rather than the villainness, though what happens in Possessed is perhaps more down to her character's actions than in the earlier film.

Crawford plays Louise Howell who is seen not looking her best to say the least at the start of the film, disoriented she is taken to a hospital and slowly the film reveals how she got into this state. Most of it stems from her obsession for David Sutton (Van Heflin) a rather swarmy character who says he feels smothered by her love. He also appears a bit dim not realising the depth of Louise's obsession with him which seems fairly obvious from the start. It also doesn't seem right that someone like Louise would be a nurse for another mental case, Dean Graham's (Raymond Massey) wife. When the wife commits suicide guilt sends Louise over the edge and she begins hallucinating, in one scene pushing Dean's daughter down the stairs, oddly enough this is a great scene slightly spoiled for me when its revealed as a dream. As is a later episode in the movie where you are asking yourself : did she really do it ?

Pauline Kael described Crawford in this movie as an actress not satisfied with one Oscar and its a good performance almost making you believe the improbable plot. As for the film's noir credentials it was directed by Curtis Bernhardt a European and certainly uses shadows and sound very effectively, particularly  in a scene where Crawford is frightened first by the tick-tocking of the clock then by the drip-dropping of the rain leading her to hurriedly pull down the window.

Engaging enough to watch with the fascination with psychology popular during this period ((Shock (1945), Spellbound (1945) etc)) though no classic.