Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

jacobs-greenwood Directed by Curtis Bernhardt, and co-written by Ranald MacDougall, 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 Mildred 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 and 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.

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!

Michael_Elliott Possessed (1947) *** (out of 4)Joan Crawford's incredible performance is the highlight of this thriller. In the film she plays Louise Howell, a woman who begins to suffer a mental breakdown after the man (Van Heflin) she loves walks away from her. Even though she marries another man (Raymond Massey) the stress of the other one leaving her just causes her mind to collapse. It's very important to point out the fact that this film was released thirteen years before Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO and I say that because of how much credit that film gets when it comes to looking at mental illness. Viewing POSSESSED today it's easy to see where the film is going as it is quite predictable and there's no question that some of the mental illness terms are out of date. With that said, for the most part this is a fairly good thriller that manages to keep your attention thanks in large part to the terrific cast. I'm not sure what else can be said about Crawford but there's no question that she was on quite a row at Warner. First with MILDRED PIERCE then HUMORESQUE and finally POSSESSED, the actress was really pushing herself and it made for three incredible performances. What's so amazing about her performance here is how many different personalities she manages to play. This character goes through all sorts of mental "issues" and I really loved the various ways Crawford brought them to the screen. It could be as simple as someone turning their back on her or someone telling her that they're not in love. There are several scenes where she's imagining things happening to her and Crawford is just flawless. It certainly doesn't help that Heflin is perfect as the snake and Massey is also extremely good as the supporting husband. Geraldine Brooks also deserves a lot of credit for her wonderful supporting performance as the step-daughter. Director Curtis Bernhardt brings a lot of style and atmosphere to the film and there's also some wonderful cinematography that helps. Again, the film is quite predictable but this doesn't take away the fun or the brilliant work by Crawford.

sandra small Brorrowing from the docufilm; The Celluloid Closet (1995) permits the viewer to focus on Possessed (1947) from a perspective which is the main point of the film. To explain further, The Celluloid Closet (1995) points out that the Hays Code (1930 - 1968) endeavoured to regulate morality. As such the Hays Code's purpose as a guide, leads the viewer's interpretation of the film. This has culminated in a narrow, one dimensional way of looking at film as in the case of Possessed.Accordingly, this has culminated in many consumers of this film to focus on the chief character Louise Howell (Joan Crawford). This has distracted the viewer from the bigger picture which is that of the ignorance pertaining to mental illness at that time. The ignorance is apparent when Howell's husband Dean Graham (Raymond Massey), ex-lover David Sutton (Van Heflin) and step daughter, Carol Graham (Gereldine Brooks) are oblivious to Cowell's breakdown which is in fact symptomatic of schizophrenia.Pointedly, when making his diagnoses Cowell's physician's approach to the condition is indirect. It is by skirting around the subject, Howell's physician deviates from having to use the word 'schizophrenia'. This prompts a reaction by Howell and as such she doesn't suffer fools by telling the doctor that she knows that he is diagnosing schizophrenia. She then went on to describe herself as 'crazy'. This negative stereotype of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia is not only a cause of ignorance, but moreover fuel's ignorance.Indeed the film's subtext is to convey a message to the Hay's Code and how it's prohibition on certain subject matters fuels ignorance. Such ignorance climax is tragedy as Possessed shows.An excellent marketing commodity, Crawford's VIP celebrity status permits a focus on her calibre as a star and actor. By focusing on Crawford too much the viewer overlooks the bigger picture of Possessed. Moreover the film becomes more of a tool to buttress Crawford's acting status which, as has been well documented, was vital to her vocation just prior to her Oscar win for Mildred Pierce (1945) when apparently her career as an Hollywood actor at MGM was on the slide.Warner Brothers who produced Mildred Pirce and Possessed utilised the Crawford MGM had forged, (for example see her in MGM's Grand Hotel 1932) which was the archetypal film star and turned her into a bona fide credible actor , which were acknowledged by her Oscar win and subsequent nomination for each film respectively. From here on in Crawford's film career took on a new direction.While the supporting cast in Possessed is credible their acting did not convey the depth of ignorance to mental illness as convincing as could have been. As to Crawford's acting she being a histrionic actor placed this film's genre as a hybrid of soapy nior. An example can be viewed in one scene when Howell pushes (albeit accidentally) step daughter Carol Graham down the stairs which turns out to be a hallucination, which is a prominent symptom of schizophrenia. Where the cast lack in their endeavours to highlight the ignorance pertaining to mental illness the director Curis Burnhadt makes up for this by utilising audio affects. This method serves as a tool to maximise and covey Howell's hallucinatory state. In sum this film is a recommended portrayal of the ignorance pertaining to mental illness. This is conveyed as a message to the Hay's Code enforcers that they were responsible for fuelling such ignorance. For that endeavour Kudos goes to director Curtis Burnhartd.