A Joan Crawford’s star-vehicle directed by German émigré Curtis Bernhardt, in POSSESSED (not the namesake film Crawford made in 1931 with Clark Gable), Crawford plays Louise Howell, an erotomaniac possessed by her desire over David Sutton (Heflin), an engineer who cannot reciprocate her with the same obsession.

The film opens with a frazzled Louise roaming in the streets of Los Angeles, unable to utter another word besides “David!”, she succumbs to a stupor and is taken to the hospital, under the treatment of Dr. Willard (Ridges), she lets up her stories in flashback from the falling-out between her and David, he considers her as a mere intermezzo in his life, yet she contends to be his theme song (aka,Schumann’s Carnaval, Op. 9 piano solo), the music cue plays a significant role in the later stage which compounds Louise’s descent into psychosis.

A trained nurse hired to minister to the invalid wife of the wealthy industrialist Dean Graham (Massey, a salt-of-the-earth ilk but also mulish enough to seek the impossible) and after a horrific event crops up near the family's lake house, leaving Dean a widower, Louise choose to stay on with the Graham family in Washington D.C. on the strength of seeing David again, since Dean is his boss.

When David reappears in her life, Louise goes all out to reignite their romance, but the latter is completely out of love with her, humiliated and disillusioned, she accepts Dean’s marriage proposal in spite of both twig that she isn’t in love with him. Loveless-but-affluent marriage usually functions well for most people, but Louise receives a bolt from the blue when she finds out David and her step-daughter Carol (a debutante Brooks) have become an item, which is the tipping point driving her into further hallucination where reality and unreality has blurred their finitude.Two murderous occurrences are confected, only one transpires to be veridical (the other sending up its blasé staircase confrontation trope), but the ending, nevertheless, ladles out enough psychobabble to augur everything will be fine for the misfortune-ridden Lousie.

Nabbing her second Oscar nomination, Ms. Crawford makes for a barnstorming presence, histrionic occasionally, but speaking of a tarnished soul desperately hanging on her tapering pride, she is magnificent to behold (decked by jewelry and finery if she sees fit), less savory if she has to play the smitten lover against a miscast Hefin, whose thuggish comportment is a far cry from a mathematic engineer, one basically feels apathetic to his character’s comeuppance, and wonders what women see in him is so deadly irresistible? That said, POSSESSED shows upBernhardt’s expressionist flourish in his spooky orchestration that torments Louise’s sanity and boosts a strong showcase for its middle-age conscious star, who refuses to be sidelined, neither by the man she yens for nor by the ageist and sexist system, into which she has been sinking her teeth for over two decades starting from its bottom rung.

referential points: Michael Curtiz’s MILDRED PIERCE (1945, 6.9/10), David Miller’s SUDDEN FEAR (1952, 7.1/10)

本片最大的亮点无疑是琼。琼的表演是惊人的、令人叫绝的，在旧坞一众不可避免受到时代局限的演技派演员中，她的表演难得的非常注重细节的真实度，例如强忍着的哽咽声，哭过后的抽泣声，以及各种微小表情都让表演的信服力陡然增加，正是这些细节极大地增强了琼表演的张力。

其实她在米高梅时期所饰演的角色也从来都不是“木头美人”，作为flapper girl出道的她一直都以非常灵动的表演、丰富的面部表情和肢体动作呈现在银幕上，尽管此时她没有多少可以真正展现演技的角色；跳槽到华纳、赢得奥斯卡后为她带来了更多的机会和角色的可能性、为她的演技提供发挥的空间，本片就是一个典型例子。

在本片中琼展现出的细腻的、真实的、极具张力的演技在之后不断成熟；在十年后的《怨妇悲秋》里，她被患有精神病的男主用家电砸手后强忍着剧痛留下泪水、嗓音哽咽到沙哑，此时她的演技无疑达到了新的巅峰。看到这一幕时，我不由地拜倒、感慨：没有哪一位旧坞演员再能贡献出这样“豁出去”的表演、爆发出如此强大的戏剧张力了。

琼的表演让作为忠实影迷的我看得酣畅淋漓，然而亦难填本片情节在观感上的遗憾。可以说直到湖边小屋清除梦魇的段落前都很好，特别是琼一人重回小屋的桥段，伪主观镜头的出现着实惊喜，虽然和人物走位的配合似乎反而暴露了摄像机的位置，但对氛围的渲染无疑是极其到位的：此时本片呈现出强烈的灵异、恐怖片观感，令人胆战心惊的氛围里真的很怕会出现jump scare的镜头，吓人的效果真的会很好......

然而当此段结束、夫妻重归于好时，后面的剧情发展就属实有些心累了。首先男主角van heflin饰演这个角色就很难有说服力，并非典型美男子的长相和毫无人格魅力的角色真的很难理解女主角对他的情感。这就更加凸显出琼的厉害之处，她的表演让女主角的经历变得如此的有说服力和代入感，让人不免想起《阿黛尔·雨果的故事》中阿佳妮所饰演的同样为狂恋所困缠的少女对着镜头控诉道：“您认为人们总是能一成不变地控制他们的情感吗？有时你就会这样疯狂地爱一个人，即使你鄙夷唾弃这个人的一切！”影片里，女主角在清醒时也能意识到男主的不值得、自己的疯狂，但她无法战胜自己汹涌强烈的情感，加上精神问题的作祟，此乃后话，但正是清醒时反而更强烈的挣扎感无疑让角色的心理和行为变得更加信服。

也许是情节设置的松散，往常我应当是很喜欢那些很dramatic的冲突时刻的，即使情节上会落入俗套，但本片一系列联系似乎不那么密切的戏剧性冲突只让后半段的我不断感到疲倦了。譬如对死去夫人的梦魇和对男主爱恨的两条线之联系似乎稍显牵强，这也使得个人观感在极具灵性的“鬼屋”段落后便急转直下。总而言之，本片的剧情让我理解了看似高深、设置各种心理学概念的此片未能在影史留名的原因，但琼的表演使得本片多了一个闪耀之处，她的表演的确是奥斯卡级别的。然而获奖涉及到的因素就远不止是演技了，幸好，有《欲海情魔》已给了琼一些公道。