Word: heflinism
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Possessed. An involved and rather sudsy psychiatric story, acted with conviction by Joan Crawford and Van Heflin (TIME, June...
Possessed. A rather sudsy psychiatric story, acted with conviction by Joan Crawford and Van Heflin (TIME, June...
Joan's story, told in flashbacks, is cluttered with woman's magazine heartthrobs and too much elementary psychology. Her trouble really started when she fell possessively in love with David (Van Heflin), a cold-blooded man who can take his women or leave them. Joan got left. She had other troubles, too: Raymond Massey's mentally sick wife, whom she was nursing, was jealous of her without cause, and committed suicide. Since she was getting nowhere with Heflin, Joan married Massey. His daughter, Geraldine Brooks, believing her late mother's fantasies about the treacherous nurse, hated...
...wonder that Joan's mind began to come apart. A prey to confused motives, she tried to "save" the girl from Heflin when she was really trying to save him for herself. She also gradually became convinced that she had murdered Massey's wife. Even more frightening hallucinations followed. After a fierce burst of melodrama, Joan winds up on the hospital cot. The cautious prognosis: she is a schizophrene, but conceivably curable...
...film is also uncommonly well acted. Van Heflin puts a lot of bite into his work; Newcomer Geraldine Brooks has looks, talent and vitality. Miss Crawford, though she is not quite up to her hardest scenes, is generally excellent, performing with the passion and intelligence of an actress who is not content with just one Oscar. In fact, the weaknesses in this unusual movie do not greatly matter beside the fact that a lot of people who have a lot to give are giving it all they...