Possessed

Directed by Clarence Brown, Possessed follows Joan Crawford’s poor (and very ambitious) Marian Martin as she meets and falls in love with a rich lawyer named Mark Whitney (Clark Gable). Filmmaker Brown, working from a script by Lenore Coffee, does a terrific job of immediately capturing the viewer’s interest and attention, as Possessed kicks off with an unexpectedly stylish opening stretch that features an eye-catching (and impressively memorable) tracking shot of an arriving train – with the promising, engaging atmosphere heightened by Crawford’s terrific turn as the central character. And although the picture admittedly does segue into a hit-and-miss midsection (eg it’s occasionally just a little too sluggish and stagy), Possessed, anchored by the phenomenal chemistry between Crawford and Gable’s respective figures, builds towards a thoroughly satisfying climax that packs far more of an emotional punch than one might’ve anticipated – which does, in the end, cement the movie’s place as a top-notch pre-code drama.

*** out of ****