Joan Crawford's first of two different films to be titled "Possessed", this one a creaky, campy Depression-era drama co-starring an oddly bland Clark Gable. Estimable screenwriter Lenore Coffee adapted Edgar Selwyn's play "The Mirage", and was probably a very good choice for the project since she comes at the material from the female point-of-view. Crawford plays a factory-girl from the sticks who relocates to New York and falls in love with a wealthy attorney. Film was considered risqué for its time, but today only the evocative photography is arresting (especially an early sequence showing lives on a train through the windows, a shot which is never topped for the rest of the picture). Overall, a trite soaper, but definitely worth-catching for the curiosity value alone. ** from ****
Review of Possessed
