Possessed
Short description
Louise Howell is found wandering the streets of Los Angeles in a state of profound shock and is brought to a psychiatric hospital. Unable to speak or respond, she repeats only the name David. A doctor, Harvey Willard, uses a drug to draw her out of her catatonia, and she recounts the events that brought her there: her obsessive love for the engineer David Sutton, his decision to end their relationship, and her marriage to her widowed employer, Dean Graham. The situation grows more volatile when David becomes involved with Louise's stepdaughter, Carol. The film was directed by Curtis Bernhardt, its release coming between My Reputation in 1946 and Beau Brummell in 1954, from a screenplay by Ranald MacDougall and Silvia Richards.
Joan Crawford stars as Louise, with Van Heflin as David, Raymond Massey as Dean Graham, Geraldine Brooks as Carol, Stanley Ridges as Dr. Willard, and John Ridgely as Harker. It is a Warner Bros. Pictures production, running 108 minutes. On TMDB it holds a rating of 6.9 out of 10 from 88 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- To get into the role of Louisa, Joan Crawford visited mentally ill patients and spoke with psychiatrists.
- Crawford unsuccessfully tried to persuade Warner Bros. to change the title of the film to The Secret, as she had already starred in the film Obsession in 1931.
- It is claimed that Joan Crawford (1905-1977), who played the lead role, flatly refused to film until twin brothers Julius G. Epstein (1909-2000) and Philip G. Epstein (1909-1952) rewrote her part. At the time, the Epstein brothers had been suspended from the studio, but executive producer Jack L. Warner (1892-1978) accommodated the actress, temporarily reinstated the Epsteins, and ordered them to make the changes to the script requested by Crawford (on the condition that their names would not appear in the credits).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
