Adapted by Lenore Coffee from a 1920 play, 'The Mirage', by Edgar Selwyn, 'Possessed' is a shameless piece of pre-code escapism from MGM largely free of the redeeming social comment to be found in most contemporaneous films from other studios. It became one of the top-grossing films of the grimmest year of the Depression, when countless women in dead-end jobs married to no-hopers in small towns doubtless found it a tonic to see Joan Crawford break her shackles, go to the Big City and quickly become showered with nice clothes, expensive jewelry and a luxurious apartment. (Less enthralled was the British censor, who banned the film.)
Billed above the title, even in her youth at 25 going on 40 Crawford was by no stretch of the imagination a great beauty, which I suspect was part of her appeal to female audiences; if she could get her claws into Clark Gable and his money ("I'm glad you're rich, I couldn't waste my time on anyone poor!") and become an elegant courtesan, then maybe there was still a chance for them.
SPOILER COMING: Naturally she starts wringing her hands at the lack of security or respectability provided by this arrangement, and when she learns that their relationship may hurt his run for Governor makes the usual big show of Not Really Loving Gable in order to make one of those Noble Self-Sacrifices That Only She Knows the Truth About. Fortunately all is resolved in an extravagantly bizarre finale at a huge political rally (which looks as if half the film's budget was spent on it), which initially bears a striking resemblance to the one in 'Citizen Kane' crashed by Boss Jim Geddes. This time the uninvited guest is Crawford as 'Mrs. Moreland', and instead of ruination as in 'Kane' we get an abrupt reconciliation and a happy resolution for Gable & Crawford. The End.
Billed above the title, even in her youth at 25 going on 40 Crawford was by no stretch of the imagination a great beauty, which I suspect was part of her appeal to female audiences; if she could get her claws into Clark Gable and his money ("I'm glad you're rich, I couldn't waste my time on anyone poor!") and become an elegant courtesan, then maybe there was still a chance for them.
SPOILER COMING: Naturally she starts wringing her hands at the lack of security or respectability provided by this arrangement, and when she learns that their relationship may hurt his run for Governor makes the usual big show of Not Really Loving Gable in order to make one of those Noble Self-Sacrifices That Only She Knows the Truth About. Fortunately all is resolved in an extravagantly bizarre finale at a huge political rally (which looks as if half the film's budget was spent on it), which initially bears a striking resemblance to the one in 'Citizen Kane' crashed by Boss Jim Geddes. This time the uninvited guest is Crawford as 'Mrs. Moreland', and instead of ruination as in 'Kane' we get an abrupt reconciliation and a happy resolution for Gable & Crawford. The End.