☆ ☆ ☆ ½
Possessed
(1947) – C. Bernhardt
Joan Crawford has a psychotic break from
reality when the man she loves (Van Heflin) spurns her for first, a job, and
then, another much younger woman. As
directed by Curtis Bernhardt, however, Crawford doesn’t entirely garner
audience sympathy. Well, you want to
care for her, but she begins to act paranoid, imagining that she has harmed
others or that others are intentionally trying to hurt her. It is a pretty good performance that ends (or
actually starts, because this film is told in flashback) in a catatonic stupor
in a mental hospital. Of course, the
psychology is not quite right, but it doesn’t really offend -- except in the
way that the noir tone of the film brings violence and mental illness together
when the actual relationship is tiny.
But this isn’t really a noir, more of a melodrama or “women’s picture”
(as they used to be called). Audiences
of the 40’s loved to watch Joan suffer (see also Mildred Pierce fro 1945) and
suffer she does.
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