There are only three things that really stand out in Curtis Bernhardt's Possessed, the story of a mentally unstable nurse named Louise Howell. The first is the beautiful cinematography by Joseph Valentine. His use of shadow and high-contrast lighting really makes the film pop visually. The second is a phenomenal sequence early in the film where Louise is wheeled into a hospital and we see everything from her point of view: the hospital doors opening before her, the orderlies glancing at her from the sides and corners of the screen, and barbaric-looking medical instruments careening into our faces. It's a truly unnerving scene that drives home the fact that to many hospitals are nothing more than sterile prisons. And the third stand out part of Possessed is Joan Crawford's tour de force performance as Louise. At times her performance is physically painful to watch, almost like you are witnessing a small animal being tortured. But the rest of the film fails to live up to these three strengths. The story is generally tepid, focusing on how Louise's unrequited love for a man triggered schizophrenic episodes which eventually end in murder. Well, okay, I lied. There IS another good part of the film. It involves a scene where a young woman confronts Louise and threatens to expose her secrets. She reacts by pushing her down a flight of stairs which, in true Hollywood fashion, ends up killing her. And then, suddenly, the same woman walks through the front door of the house Louise is in. Louise looks down at the body only to discover...that it is not there. The whole thing had been a schizophrenic episode. That segment actually managed to catch me off guard. Unfortunately, the film never again manages to recapture that level of tension and drama. Despite the good parts, Possessed is just a lukewarm glass of water.
6/10
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