Possessed

1947

Action / Crime / Drama / Film-Noir / Thriller

5
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 83% · 12 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 76% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.1/10 10 5886 5.9K

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Plot summary

After being found wandering the streets of Los Angeles, a severely catatonic woman tells a doctor the complex story of how she wound up there.


Uploaded by: OTTO
November 07, 2014 at 09:25 PM

Top cast

Joan Crawford as Louise Howell
Douglas Kennedy as Asst. District Attorney
Geraldine Brooks as Carol Graham
Peter Miles as Wynn Graham
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
809.26 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 48 min
Seeds 1
1.64 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 48 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by mark.waltz 8 / 10

She was the original Fatal Attraction...

If Glenn Close's Alex Forrest had gotten the Joan Crawford treatment in the 1987 thriller "Fatal Attraction", we'd get more of an examination into her mind rather than the Alfred Hitchcock "Psycho" finale we were stuck with. You don't get any closer than Close with Joan Crawford as the ultimate psychopath, a woman of multiple emotional problems that make her a sad case to behold.

This was the second film called "Possessed" that Crawford made, and in each case, the word "possessed" had a different meaning. The 1931 film, her first chance to utilize her famous 1930's MGM glamor after several years as a jazz baby, had her being possessed by a man (Clark Gable), but here, "possessed" indicates the demons inserted into her mind which have made her the picture postcard for "Diary of a Mad White Woman". She's also a nurse, so there will be comparisons to Kathy Bates' character in "Misery" as well. She takes care of the equally mad heard but not seen wife of Raymond Massey, a doctor himself involved in his own hell. When she allegedly commits suicide, Crawford remains on, taking care of Massey's young son and fighting with his older daughter (Geraldine Brooks) whom Crawford eventually becomes convinced is taking away the love of her old flame, Van Heflin, who gave her the heeve-ho months before. Like any mental illness, it subsides for a while, and Crawford settles into a seemingly happy marriage with Massey, but then Heflin returns, and all of the demons start up all over again.

Yes, Crawford does go over the top in this one, but here, it is part of the character, having fits that seem to make no sense-at first. As you see what this woman is going through in a story told through flashback, you empathize with her. Crawford is first seen wearing no makeup roaming the streets of L.A. (in heels of course) and ends up in the hospital where her back story unfolds. Van Heflin is supposed to be the one to blame for her going "Berserk" but it really goes beyond that. He is not a villain, only a bit of a scoundrel, and he does let her down gently. Raymond Massey provides much tenderness as the man she admits she doesn't love when she agrees to marry him which shows his versatility considering all of the villains he's played. Geraldine Brooks allows us to see the kindness in her initially resentful daughter, only resorting to distrust of Crawford when it is pushed to that.

This is without a doubt Crawford's finest performance (closedly followed by "Humoresque"), more layered than her Oscar Winning role in "Mildred Pierce" and by allowing herself to show us what she looks like underneath all that pancake, Crawford proved she was an actress first and a star (a very close) second.

Reviewed by jotix100 8 / 10

A woman in love

Never underestimate a woman in love. Such seems to be the message of "Possessed", a film that was obviously tailor made for its star, Joan Crawford. As directed by Curtis Bernhardt, this film will not bore the fans of the genre, or its star.

If you haven't seen the film, maybe you should stop reading here.

"Possessed" presents us Louise Howell, a nurse, for the ailing Mrs. Graham, a wealthy recluse. Louise's charge is a woman from hell. When this woman dies under mysterious circumstances, it appears to herald the end of Louise's employment. Prior to that, we see Louise during a tryst with a neighbor of the Grahams, David Sutton. They have had an affair and David decides to end it, much to Louise's chagrin.

Dean Graham, the rich widower, asks Louise to stay after his wife's death. Will a marriage proposal be too far behind? Well, Dean proposes and Louise accepts. Her life is transformed from mediocrity into a life of luxury. The only sour point in Louise's new found happiness is Carol Graham, the daughter of the dead woman who blames Louise for the accident and death of her mother.

Will Louise find happiness with Dean? Will David see how much Louise loves him and come back to her? Will Carol and Louise ever be friends? Those are the questions that will be answered in the movie, not by this observer. The film is involving, although having seen some of these melodramas prepares us for all possible answers.

Joan Crawford does an impressive job as Louise. This woman gave the star one of her best characters ever. She goes through a range of emotions right before our eyes. Van Heflin, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have been the obvious choice for David, although he was an excellent actor, but in this movie doesn't have much to do. Raymond Massey, as Dean, is enormously appealing. He shows us a Dean who is a generous man. A young Geraldine Brooks makes a good impression as Carol the girl that is deprived of her mother at an early age.

"Possessed" is a wonderful film. It will not disappoint the fans of this genre.

Reviewed by MartinHafer 8 / 10

An exceptional portrait of insanity

During the 1940s, there were several films about mental illness and most that I have seen are psychological mumbo-jumbo--filled with nonsense and portraying insanity in the most ridiculous ways. One of the most famous and seriously flawed of these film is SPELLBOUND. Despite being directed by Hitchcock and having a good reputation, most of what occurs in the film has nothing to do with mental illness and the way the therapist (Ingrid Bergman) behaves in the film is not only unethical but downright stupid. Thank goodness for films like POSSESSED that proved that Hollywood was capable of producing a reasonably good psychological drama. Unlike POSSESSED, this film seems like they actually consulted with real therapists and the way the story was written was a bit hard to believe but actually plausible. When therapists talked about the mental illness Ms. Crawford's character had, they really were reasonable in their diagnosis and the terminology they used was correct for that day. Hats off for this aspect of the film.

Now the plot of this story is in many ways pure soap opera--with more twists and turns than you'd see in any other genre. The combination of the four main characters and their many problems sure gives the audience of entertainment for the cost of admission. Now the father (Raymond Massey) and his daughter (Geraldine Brooks) are relatively "normal" in the film. However, Van Heflin plays a somewhat sociopathic creep--a guy with little depth but a lot of charm. He's unwilling to commit to a serious relationship with Joan at the beginning of the film, but later he sweeps a much younger lady (Joan's step-daughter) off her feet and when confronted admits that much of her appeal is her money! Joan Crawford's character, however, is the main focus of the film and wow does she have a lot going on psychologically! In the beginning, she seems normal enough but when rejected by Heflin, she shows that there is a strong streak of obsession and delusion about her--and she comes off sounding like a crazed stalker. This is only the beginning, however, as throughout the course of the film, it's apparent that her problems run much deeper as she paints an amazingly accurate portrait of a woman sinking into the depths of schizophrenia (with paranoid and catatonic features). While some portrayals of this illness have been better in recent years, Ms. Crawford, the director and the writers did an amazing job for the time--an image that would still hold true today. No mumbo-jumbo here--just an accurate picture of what it would be like to slip into madness and eventually into catatonia. The only obviously wrong aspect of this is the amazing results they got using drugs to break through her unresponsive state--this just isn't possible. However, considering how this set up the film and was necessary for the narrative, this can easily be overlooked.

Okay, so if you're not a psychotherapist or psychology teacher, is the film worth seeing? Absolutely. Apart from the psychological truths in the film, there is some dandy romance, lots of unexpected twists and turns and darn fine acting throughout. Apparently this plum role was first offered to Bette Davis (who also apparently foolishly turned down the lead in MILDRED PIERCE) but Ms. Davis was about to go on maternity leave. Frankly, though I adore Ms. Davis as an actress, Crawford was so good here that I don't mind at all--she had a great knack for playing playing characters on the edge of sanity.

See this film. About the only reason it didn't score it a 9 is that towards the end Van Heflin's reaction to Crawford didn't make much sense. It was obvious Crawford was dangerous and unbalanced--yet he foolishly taunted her. Everyone knows you DON'T dare a crazy person to shoot you--they usually DO!!! Duh.

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