Item #: 22161DV Category: CRAWFORD, JOAN Format: DVD MPAA Rating: U

Woolly Rating: 4/10 (97 votes)

MEMBER COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO

Kevin Rayburn

Jul 12, 2005 @ 16:1:47

That Woman's Craaaaazzzzy!!!!
I have to admit, I get a kick out of some of Joan Crawford's mid-'40's Warner Bros. vehicles--especially the deft genre mixing and matching in the noirish "Mildred Pierce" (1945), the schmaltz and dark edges in "Humoresque" (1947; my favorite) and the outlandish "Flamingo Road" (1949). Like that latter film, this one has the trademark Warner craftsmanship and overblown musical punctuation (you see this in both 'Flamingo Road' and the 1949 Cagney classic 'White Heat'). "Possessed" (no 'The' in the title as is erroneously stated here) is the most outlandish of them all. Joan Crawford starts off the picture as a catatonic looney and in flashback we see the emotional rollercoaster she rides on the way to the bin. I have to admit, I like Crawford more when she's asked to underplay things (see her fine cynical turn in 1941's "A Woman's Face.") "Possessed" lets her pull out all the stops and, as a result, this is one very wearying two-hour experience. The story is so obviously contrived as a Crawford vehicle that one is asked constantly to accept the incredible or the illogical. It's all a bit too much for me, I have to admit. There's also a boorish film scholar on the commentary track with an annoyingly snooty voice who dabbles way too much in amateurish Freudian psychobabble. Lots of opportunities are missed by this scholar to comment on some inside stuff (the reference to Bugs Bunny that Crawford makes in this film would have made a nice opportunity to comment on how Warner crossmarketed its cartoons, features and related songs in the 30s and 40s, but snooty boy just continues on cluelessely about Freudianism). I would recommend seeing all the other Joan Crawford movies I've mentioned before trying this one. ** Possessed (1947) -2005 Kevin Rayburn

BEWARE OF JEALOUS JOAN!
Most definitely one of the more soap opera-ish of the noirs of this period, this film could just as easily have been entitled "Fatal Attraction." In her portrayal of an intense, humorless, pathologically jealous woman in sexual thrall to an uncaring man (Van Heflin), Joan Crawford is convincing without quite going over the top--a tribute to her artistry, of course. There is indeed far too much fashionable psychobabble for modern tastes, resulting in a film about 20 minutes too long. Van Heflin is fine as the cold playboy engineer. But most of his lines are not nearly as clever and witty as the scriptwriters think they are. Raymond Massey is very good as the older man Crawford marries out of spite. Thanks, KR, for the explanation for that seemingly casual reference to Bugs Bunny! 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

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