Possessed (1947)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Stefanie C

  
  What a great film to see for Mother's day! Crawford's obsession and descent to madness is quite believable. Van Heflin has all the great lines and plays the rakish cad perfectly.

• Sergio G

  
  I was completly expecting a different thing. Something between paranormal and suspense...but no. The movie is about this woman with serious mental problems. Filmed back in 1947 but impecable directed, the camera angles are great. Almost everything is really good, the acting, the… More
  I was completly expecting a different thing. Something between paranormal and suspense...but no. The movie is about this woman with serious mental problems. Filmed back in 1947 but impecable directed, the camera angles are great. Almost everything is really good, the acting, the cinematography, the story. The end I feel that needs a little more punch, but well, minor detail. So rent it, look for it or buy it. Oh!, and Geraldine Brooks...O_O wow.

• Nicki M

  
  Excellent movie, I loved how this was filmed - the whole beginning of the movie as she wanders down the street half crazy reminded me of photography, Truly an enthralling movie, following Louise (Joan Crawford), who is obsessed with the caddish David and driven to insanity by having… More
  Excellent movie, I loved how this was filmed - the whole beginning of the movie as she wanders down the street half crazy reminded me of photography, Truly an enthralling movie, following Louise (Joan Crawford), who is obsessed with the caddish David and driven to insanity by having to watch him with her daughter in law, or maybe by Schizophrenia, who is to know which came first?! One of the best old movies I have seen, not far short of Mildred Pierce.

• AJ V

  
  A good obsession movie, and Crawford is just the woman to play this character, I really liked this movie.

• Veronique K

  
  "possessed" is one of the few flicks in the 40s which allows miss crawford to behave demurely like a lady, and effectively "possessed" has a sympathetic touch of ingrid bergman's "gaslight" with charles boyer as the insidious husband who schemes to… More
  "possessed" is one of the few flicks in the 40s which allows miss crawford to behave demurely like a lady, and effectively "possessed" has a sympathetic touch of ingrid bergman's "gaslight" with charles boyer as the insidious husband who schemes to trap his wife into insanity for the diamond thivery. here crawford takes the reverse aim to her patterned vixen image and also nullifies her constant dose of glamour that catalyzes her brittleness to fracture into shattered pieces as genuine frailty. the plot whirls around an inwardly knotted woman named louise whose avidity for the love of a man called david sinks herself into the abysmal disillusion when david gets weary of her clingy affection, then her problematic mental disorder is ripping her off relentlessly with guilt-ridden hallucinations. the script is written on the basis of freudian psychoanalysis of the relieving function of confessions, and the story builds along her narrative descriptions. this applied technique is nothing innovative but stereotyped psychological drama thru the protagonist's gradual sequence of self-revelations. the psychology of louise would be her fear in the void of love, and she alerts herself with her perennial detachment required in her occupation as a nurse, then once the wall of passion collapses, neediness starts to haunt her in despair. except crawford's accomplished performance of the mentally illed, the rest of the movie is actually stiflingly cliched, even it's arranged with firmly condensed structure but inevitably melodramatic. the heartthrob who captivates poor louise's heart is played by van heflin whose david is a repellently cynical womanizer who operates upon his careless whim, who has no pity upon louise. he's aware that she suffers from the want of his love and intimacy in the level of sharpeningly errosive agony, but he still refuses to grant just a bit more of tenderness or compassion, worse of all, he chooses to reoccur frequently in her life without a bit merciful avoidance, eventually he even courts her daughter-in-law shamelessly that stimulates her extremity to crack up in slices. the charisma of helfin's david is bewilderingly beyond comprehension, same as louise's possessive infatuation upon him, heflin doesn't look convincingly gorgeous enough like a martini idol, and there's no likability in the character of david who is neglectfully indifferent and playfully ruthless. one particular line he utters "i've done nothing wrong to you except falling out of love with you, and that's man's previledge" is obnoxiously chauvinistic, maybe repulsively sexistic as well. it resembles olivia de havilland's "snake's pit" with the presence of paternal figure with infinite patience and supportive love: in "snake's pit", miss dehavilland has her nodding husband and her kind-faced doctor; miss crawford only has her willingly awaiting husband who still remains a thread of hope upon her..as dehavilland, crawford also de-glamourizes herself to manifest the deeper scale of her acting talent....is paternal gentility a necessity to heal off female mental perversenes? maybe so, in freud's over-anatomized interpretation of parental fixation.

• Michael G

  
  What promised to be yet another melodrama about a jilted woman obsessed that quickly began to bore eventually paved the road for a great performance by Joan Crawford. It takes a soft turn into the psychology drama territory that was all the rage back in the 40s and 50s but it… More
  What promised to be yet another melodrama about a jilted woman obsessed that quickly began to bore eventually paved the road for a great performance by Joan Crawford. It takes a soft turn into the psychology drama territory that was all the rage back in the 40s and 50s but it definitely gets good. The direction is great and beautifully photographed. Completely worth the time.

Read all 6 featured audience ratings