Possessed Movie Review

Joan Crawford channels Joan Crawford in Possessed, a prototypical part for the stark actress.

Crawford plays Louise, who is introduced to us as she dazedly walks into a diner, asking for a man named David. After she collapses, she's hauled off to the mental hospital, where the doctors shake their heads and shrug. Flashbacks reveal why Louise is in such a state: She's kinda nuts, and the last thread snapped after she killed the mysterious David (Van Heflin).

Despite what the title would suggest, there's nothing supernatural in Possessed . Louise is an old-fashioned psychotic, and her insanity (though her doctor tells us at every turn how much he hates that word) is revealed in relatively tepid drips and drabs. Eventually she works her way up to murder, but that's a long time coming and the payoff isn't worthy of the hysterical mess that we know from other films Crawford can devolve into.

It's a role that Crawford was born to play, but ultimately the film is too campy to be memorable. Crawford really needs better dialogue -- or a much higher body count -- to make the proper impact.