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By
NICK ZEGARAC
"Possessed" (1947) is one of
Joan Crawford's last great outings as the grand
dame of Warner Brothers, in a film so deeply
disturbing that even today it tends to hold an
audience spellbound in its neurotic tension. After
a woman is found wandering the streets and
collapses inside a diner, muttering the name
"David" she is rushed to a psychiatric hospital
for evaluation. Of course, you just know this is
going to end sadly.
Crawford plays Louise Howell, nurse to an ailing
wealthy recluse. At the same time, she's taken up
romantically with the neighbor, David Sutton (Van
Helfin). But David recognizes something odd about
Louise, something tragic and flawed and oh, so
mentally unstable that it scares him into calling
the whole affair off -- much to Louise's dismay
and chagrin. When Louise's elderly charge suddenly
dies under mysterious circumstances, Dean Graham
(Raymond Massey), the rich widower, asks her to
stay on. This, of course, eventually leads to
Louise becoming Dean's wife. However, Louise's
happiness as the newly christened socialite of the
realm is threatened by Dean's daughter, Carol
(Geraldine Brooks) who blames -- or perhaps
intuitively suspects that the death of her mother
was no accident.
What is particularly shocking about this film is
the way in which director, Curtis Bernhardt baits
his audience with snippets of murderous intent
that are played out for maximum effect and then,
later exposed as merely the ravenously dangerous
thoughts of the film's protagonist. Yet, if Louise
can't discern between what is real and what she
imagines out of thin air, then how can we, as an
audience? Crawford's performance as Louise is
impressive to say the very least. Most
convincingly she deteriorates from a congenial
heroine to dangerous psychotic before our very
eyes.
Warner's DVD transfer is fantastic. The grayscale
has been rendered with care: deep solid blacks,
clean whites, the maximum amount of detail
presented even in the darkest scenes and very
little in the way of age-related artifacts or film
grain to contest. The audio is mono but cleaned
up. Extras include Drew Casper's audio commentary
that is spooky in its own right, as well as a
featurette proclaiming "Possessed" as the
quintessential film noir -- the latter is a bone
of contention for this reviewer. Although
"Possessed" is a fine example of film noir story
telling, it pales to "Mildred Pierce" as far as
Crawford film noir vehicles go. |
