Possessed (B+ or 3.5/4 stars)
In 'Possessed', a black-&-white film noir classic helmed by German director Curtis Bernhardt, we 1st encounter Louise (Joan Crawford) wandering/shuffling aimlessly through L.A.'s streets, moaning "David ... David". She collapses in public & is rushed to a nearby hospital's psychiatric ward, where a team of specialists try to find out just who she is, where she's been, & why she's acting the way she is. Through a series of flashbacks, she tells the doctors of the series of personal setbacks which ultimately reduced her to the schizophrenia she appears to be suffering from.
We find out who she actually is ... a home health nurse, hired by Dean Graham (Raymond Massey) to care for his invalid wife. While attending to her nursing duties, Louise also renews her romantic acquaintance with an old flame, no-good architect, David Sutton (Van Heflin). Though David is indifferent to her, Louise is still mad for him {to put it lightly}. She remains mad/crazy/obsessed; even after marrying her wealthy employer (Mr. Graham), whose mentally ill wife committed suicide up at their lake house. Any further plot details would give away the ending. But what I can say is that madness, betrayals, murder, & melodrama ensues.
This is a solid film noir that kept me riveted from beginning to end; though, I was slightly underwhelmed by how it all wrapped up. I think it needed more punch. Having said that, I cannot fault the acting. Crawford earned a well-deserved Academy Award nom here and, had she not won 2 yrs. prior for Mildred Pierce, I could see a case for her winning here in 1947. She gives a virtuoso performance as a highly frustrated woman catapulted into shear madness by unrequited love. Crawford has her typically steely moments here, but I've also never seen her so soft, so vulnerable, so pitiable. Raymond Massey is stellar, as always. Van Heflin infuses his role with relative charm, as well as a skeeve-quality which aids the story. And I liked Geraldine Brooks as Massey's conflicted daughter.
It's all very entertaining to watch; soapy, fiery, if not an exercise in brainy filmmaking. The b-&-w film noir photography makes great use of shadows. The production values are high (sets, locales, costumes). And I liked Franz Waxman's musical score. Like I said above, I just wish that the inherent high-charged melodrama proceeded on through to the final 6-8 minutes. I appreciate that the film wanted to end on a more sobering, intellectual note about the nature of schizophrenics, but I wanted this morbid fantasy to end in operatic fashion. Still, I highly recommend the film for all it gets right ... particularly Joan Crawford's performance.
We find out who she actually is ... a home health nurse, hired by Dean Graham (Raymond Massey) to care for his invalid wife. While attending to her nursing duties, Louise also renews her romantic acquaintance with an old flame, no-good architect, David Sutton (Van Heflin). Though David is indifferent to her, Louise is still mad for him {to put it lightly}. She remains mad/crazy/obsessed; even after marrying her wealthy employer (Mr. Graham), whose mentally ill wife committed suicide up at their lake house. Any further plot details would give away the ending. But what I can say is that madness, betrayals, murder, & melodrama ensues.
This is a solid film noir that kept me riveted from beginning to end; though, I was slightly underwhelmed by how it all wrapped up. I think it needed more punch. Having said that, I cannot fault the acting. Crawford earned a well-deserved Academy Award nom here and, had she not won 2 yrs. prior for Mildred Pierce, I could see a case for her winning here in 1947. She gives a virtuoso performance as a highly frustrated woman catapulted into shear madness by unrequited love. Crawford has her typically steely moments here, but I've also never seen her so soft, so vulnerable, so pitiable. Raymond Massey is stellar, as always. Van Heflin infuses his role with relative charm, as well as a skeeve-quality which aids the story. And I liked Geraldine Brooks as Massey's conflicted daughter.
It's all very entertaining to watch; soapy, fiery, if not an exercise in brainy filmmaking. The b-&-w film noir photography makes great use of shadows. The production values are high (sets, locales, costumes). And I liked Franz Waxman's musical score. Like I said above, I just wish that the inherent high-charged melodrama proceeded on through to the final 6-8 minutes. I appreciate that the film wanted to end on a more sobering, intellectual note about the nature of schizophrenics, but I wanted this morbid fantasy to end in operatic fashion. Still, I highly recommend the film for all it gets right ... particularly Joan Crawford's performance.