JohnHowardReid Copyright 26 July 1947 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Hollywood: 29 May 1947. U.S. release: 26 July 1947. U.K. release: 12 January 1948. Australian release: 18 March 1948. 9,755 feet. 108 minutes. NOTES: Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, Joan Crawford, losing to Loretta Young in The Farmer's Daughter.COMMENT: Possessed is rather heady stuff even if it could stand some sharpening and trimming. Until the first flashback it is a fully engrossing exercise in screen craftsmanship with Bernhardt excelling himself with such inventive directorial touches as the use of a subjective camera in the first hospital scenes with the camera tracking through the corridors on the trolley and doctors peering eerily into the lens. Indeed throughout the entire film, there is a superlative creation of atmosphere - the dark menacing lake house with its massively balustraded stairway and oppressive furniture, the invalid portrayed only by a querulous voice apart from the brief flash of the drowned figure rising into view from the murky waters of the lake, a subjective camera dollying through the shadowy passageways, the rain lashing the windows, the wind howling and chattering in the chimneys, the tinkling of Schumann on the piano - direction, photography, music, sound effects, art direction all coalesce brilliantly in places. At other times, alas, things are somewhat dull - particularly in some of the scenes with Van Heflin, an unsympathetic character whom the actor seems to be unsure how to play. Instead of letting the character stride across the screen in a full-blooded manner to match the dynamic playing of Miss Crawford, Heflin seems to be too restrained and too concerned with not making his characterization too unsympathetic, and as a result he seems weak and his performance pallid.Joan Crawford, as usual, is terrific, playing all stops out with the full melodramatic punch the script requires. Geraldine Brooks is also remarkably accomplished in a difficult role in which she is required to register many different changes of mood and attitude which she does most convincingly. Raymond Massey also has some marvelous histrionic opportunities, though he fails to take full advantage of them and plays his role in too straightforward a manner. The support cast is solid, though Stanley Ridge's cool analyst seems a little too studied (perhaps deliberately to contrast with the more professional approach Moroni Olsen brings to a similar role).Production values are superlative and a special tribute should be made to the special effects so skillfully and at times dazzlingly directed by William McGann.OTHER VIEWS: Crawford evokes all our heartfelt sympathy in this extremely polished film noir. It's given the Warner Bros class "A" treatment in every department and one suspects that the original Cosmopolitan magazine novelette was considerably enhanced for this masterly screen adaptation. Van Heflin is well cast as the heel, whilst the excellent Raymond Massey and Geraldine Brooks come close to rivaling Miss Crawford for our attention. Fluidly inventive direction joined with moody yet attractive photography in effective sets (particularly the gloomy lake house) all keep our eyes firmly where they belong - on the screen! -- JHR writing as George Addison.

evening1 There is some very good stuff in this film but it's way too long and repetitious. It overreaches, trying to be all things to all people -- a love story, a mental-illness screed, and a noir thriller. Joan Crawford is an interesting star. She isn't beautiful or even pretty and sometimes that works in a film because she is indeed a good actress. However, in this she gets too much screen time and bogs the movie down. However, Crawford's Louise is excellent in her scenes with David Sutton (Van Hefflin). Is there any woman who hasn't swooned over a guy who doesn't give a fig? ("'I love you' is such an inadequate way to say 'I love you!'") She nails this type of heart-rending predicament. The film is also good at sketching the perils of wishing away mental illness. Not only is Louise obsessive and self-loathing but she suffers from ideas of reference and often teeters toward psychosis, yet the film would have us believe that all she needs to heal is the love of a good man. Until "Possessed" turns into a shoot-em-up, that is. Hefflin is usually a rather understated presence in a film, but he's great in this. He's believable as a cad who hangs with Louise because he doesn't have anything better to do -- spot-on as the type of heel who will just get up and leave when the spirit moves him. "In love there are no relapses," he opines to a horrified Louise. "Once you're out of it, the feeling never comes back again." (Oh, I see. So THAT'S how it works.) And Hefflin's no less convincing as a lady-killer canoodling with a love-struck ingénue (played well by the winsome Geraldine Brooks). A bravura performance! However, Raymond Massey, so compelling in some other films, is wasted here as the polite-to-a-fault widower Dean Graham, who sees himself as old -- "It isn't very easy for a man my age to kiss a woman with dignity." Yet Massey was only 51 when this was made! (I can hear his joints creaking now.) The film drags through some extended sequences with psychiatrists and Louise feeling spooked by Graham's dead wife. And I found the ending too neat. (Why do we have to tie the story up with a neat little bow?) In the introduction to "Possessed" on TCM, Josh Mankiewicz notes that its director had an affair with Crawford during filming. Maybe that explains some of the bloating here. Which is a shame because there's a lot that's pretty good!

sdave7596 "Possessed" released in 1947, gives Joan Crawford one of her best performances at the height of her popularity at Warner Brothers. Crawford had won an Oscar just the year before for "Mildred Pierce" so she was red-hot when she made this film. Crawford stars as Louise, a seemingly cool, detached nurse who cares for an ill woman (whom we never see) who is married to a wealthy man named Dean (Raymond Massey). Louise has also just been dumped by her lover David (Van Heflin) whom she was very much in love with. Louise becomes infatuated with David, seeming to almost stalk him. On the rebound, she marries Dean (whose wife is now dead), much to the dismay of his adult daughter Carol (Geraldine Brooks). Gradually, Carol and Louise become friends. Louise then almost snaps when she learns Carol and David are seeing one another; her odd behavior becomes even odder, telling lies, imagining she was involved in the death of Dean's first wife, etc. This is where the movie veers off course: Louise confronts David about his relationship with Carol, shoots him, and then ends up wandering the streets and then in the psychiatric ward of a hospital. The film just explains it all away as psychoses and nothing more -- although in the real world of 1947 psychiatry that probably wasn't uncommon. The film is uneven at time, and the script slightly lacking, but the performances are first rate. Van Heflin has one of his better roles as a callous, arrogant playboy, and Geraldine Brooks is fine as Carol. Raymond Massey is his usual reliable self, playing the long-suffering husband role quite well. But make no mistake: this is Joan Crawford's show, and she dominates and fascinates throughout.

moonspinner55 Director Curtis Bernhardt gets excellent acting work from Joan Crawford, here in her Warner Bros. prime. Crawford's a caretaker for the sickly wife of an oilman and deeply in love with engineer Van Heflin, who feels smothered by her neediness and dumps her. Obsessed (rather than possessed), Joan goes off the deep end, marrying her employer but unable to shake off her anger and heartbreak. Ostensibly designed as a showcase for its leading lady, Joan did earn an Academy Award nomination for her performance, though the film's plot (while involved) is melodramatic and thinly-derived. We learn that Crawford's Louise Howell is mentally unstable (possibly schizophrenic)--though the way this plays out, she seems much more masochistic: a deranged, self-loathing woman scorned. Heflin is a peculiar choice as the object of Joan's unwanted affection: tough but unfocused, and unsympathetic, he doesn't seem quite like Crawford's type. Heflin does fine work under the circumstances, as does Raymond Massey playing Crawford's extremely patient and understanding new spouse. The production, despite being laden with flashbacks, is immaculate; Bernhardt does some stunning things with the camera, including fantastic point-of-view shots and imaginative scene transitions. Though the picture doesn't quite add up in the end, there's plenty of fireworks and sardonic amusement on hand for those in the mood. **1/2 from ****