Possessed

(Curtis Bernhardt, US 1947, 108 min., 35mm)

In Joan Crawford’s second film titled Possessed, she plays a woman caught up in a series of affairs and tragedies. Louise Howell (Crawford) is a nurse caring for an ailing woman while also pining after David Sutton (Van Heflin), who decides to leave the country. When her patient drowns, the woman’s husband (Raymond Massey) asks her to stay on to take care of his young son. Louise becomes haunted by the woman’s death and by paranoid delusions set off by David’s return and his interest in Carol (Geraldine Brooks), leading to a series of ill-advised and desperate decisions. 

Post-screening discussion with Curator of Film Exhibitions Jared Case.