Dvd/150: POSSESSED (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947)

Two years after winning an Academy Award for MILDRED PIERCE, Joan Crawford's career was still on a high when she starred in POSSESSED, one of her most challenging roles as a woman whose obsession love sends her deep into neurotic darkness.

POSSESSED was directed by Curtis Bernhardt whose Film Noir style is noticeable from the start as a woman wanders in a daze in the early morning streets of LA, stopping strangers asking if they are 'David'...

Confined to a hospital, through flashbacks we learn that Louise was a live-in nurse to the spiteful invalid wife of businessman Dean Graham; she is obsessively in love with his neighbour David Sutton but he rejects her.  When Mrs Graham is found drowned, Louise draws closer to Mr Graham much to the suspicion of his daughter Carol.

But when David returns unexpectedly into their lives, Louise's mind starts to become slowly deranged...

Shelf or charity shop?  One for the shelf as it's a solid Warner Brothers melodrama made more involving by the Film Noir cinematography and Crawford's committed performance as a woman pushed over the edge by dangerous love.  But one wonders if Van Heflin really could inspire such obsession in anybody?