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.

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.

My main reasons for watching 'Possessed' were Joan Crawford, a great actress (one of the best of her day) responsible for some fine performances regardless of her off-screen personality, and the very intense and brave subject matter (although going overboard on the melodrama was always going to be a danger). Van Heflin and particularly Raymond Massey have done good performances elsewhere, and Franz Waxman penned some fine music scores.

'Possessed', what an attention grabbing title too that doesn't mislead thankfully, did disappoint me just a little, as it had all the ingredients to be great and even a classic. Mostly though 'Possessed' was a solid, good even, film, with a lot of things done excellently and executes its heavy and not easy to pull off subject more than laudably and actually very well even. Not everything is great but a lot of elements are extremely well done.

Am going to start with what could have been done better. The acting was fine on the whole, but Heflin's character is very one-dimensional and very difficult to find any kind of appeal. It is not a typical role for Heflin and to me he struggled and didn't look comfortable, more intensity and charm was needed and there was nowhere near enough of either. Stanley Ridges is better but a bit too neurotic for a character that should be sympathetic.

Some of the film does get a little too melodramatic, particularly in the middle where some of the psychology waffles a little too self-indulgently and if Waxman's score was a little more subtle at times that would have helped.

Crawford however is superb in a role tailor-made for her, the more intense moments are incredibly bone-chilling without feeling too over-played. Geraldine Brooks, who really shines and this was just her film debut, is the other cast standout and Massey makes the most out of an underwritten role and is really quite good.

The photography is excellent throughout, especially clever and very atmospheric in the point of view shots. Waxman's score could have done with more subtlety, but it is sumptuously orchestrated and quite haunting. The direction is at ease with the subject and has the right amount of tension without on the most part over-heating it. The story is not always perfect but it is still gripping from beginning to end, the mental illness element is handled with tact but also in a way that is both quite frightening and moving and it's suspenseful. The first act in particular is terrific.

In conclusion, solid if falling slightly short of bigger potential. 7/10