In Possessed (1947), Joan Crawford played Louise Howell, a woman whose obsessive love for a married man leads her into madness. Directed by Curtis Bernhardt, the film is a psychological melodrama told partly through Louise’s memories as she is questioned by doctors.
Crawford’s Louise is intense and tormented, and she played the character’s descent with a conviction that made the film’s darker passages believable. The performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Possessed is a striking example of Crawford’s post-war work — a film that used her screen intensity to explore obsession and mental illness, and one that remains unsettling today.