Oh My Emacs! Another Joan Crawford movie? Is this like the 30th in this blog series? Who bought these movies anyway?
This is super noir. They even found rainy days to shoot in Los Angeles.
As usual, you can’t fault Crawford’s er expressive performance. The other actors also plays it large, and it’s pretty great. It’s got the classic noir structure of everything being told in a flashback, and the story being told is on fleek. I really didn’t see a lot of the plot twists coming. And the way the movie deals with mental health problems is refreshing. I mean, they play it BIG, but it’s fresh.
This is a riveting movie.
The bluray transfer is beautiful. Some restorers go for maximum details so they keep the dark portions grey, but here everything drops off to #000. And so much grain.
Possessed. Curtis Bernhardt. 1947.
Popular movies in May 1947 according to IMDB:
| Poster | Votes | Rating | Movie |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 16324 | 8.0 | Black Narcissus |
 | 341 | 7.2 | Le silence est d’or |
 | 3242 | 7.2 | Possessed |
 | 546 | 7.1 | The Web |
 | 284 | 7.0 | Repeat Performance |
 | 463 | 6.9 | Dear Murderer |
 | 1038 | 6.7 | The Long Night |
 | 644 | 6.5 | Dishonored Lady |
 | 272 | 6.4 | High Barbaree |
 | 692 | 6.4 | Dick Tracy’s Dilemma |
This blog post is part of the Decade series.