Sunday, October 09, 2005
Possessed - The Joan Crawford Collection
- Who's watched: Neither
- Mentions: None
- Commentary: This came as one of five in a Joan Crawford Collection (Click the part of the title that says "The Joan Crawford Collection" for a different summary and review). Yet another in the we haven't watched, although it sounds as tantalizing as the rest.
We finally watched this film and it had the same effect on us as The Damned Don't Cry. It's not only fascinating to watch Joan Crawford emote her way through this movie, the breadth of this movie is huge, which makes it treacherously engaging. I mean, if you think you can watch bits of it here and there, forget it. Once you start this picture, you will be cancelling whatever activities you had planned to interrupt the film into sections.
Update: 9/23/21: I've watched this film many times since Mom's death. For some reason I find the old style psychiatric babble spewed as Louise is being diagnosed fascinating. It's pretty much old school, now, but it's, hmmm, educational, I guess, to listen to. In addition, Louise's murderous rage seems likely to this day, and, yes, Louise, David is surely a cad, you should have given him up, but it's hard, isn't it, when you love someone and even you can't explain why, because he's a cad. Plus, there's all the drama going on with the man she marries, Dean Graham, and his daughter, who is maturing before her eyes and becomes an imaginary threat to Louise. Such a delectable movie! So full of Louise's internal histrionics! This one's a keeper!
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Joan Crawford Louise Howell Van Heflin David Sutton Raymond Massey Dean Graham Geraldine Brooks Carol Graham Stanley Ridges Dr. Willard Nana Bryant Pauline Graham Peter Miles Wynn Graham Griff Barnett Coroner
Here you can find a link to the Wikipedia write-up on this film. The first link attached to the title of this post will take you to TCM's article on this film. In addition, if you move your cursor through to the second link in the title above, you will find DVD Savant's review of this movie in second place on the page.
Release Date: 1947
Directed by Curtis Bernhardt.
Labels: dramaA, film-noir2, joan-crawford, melodramaA, van-heflin
