Possessed

This movie goes to prove that pre-code Hollywood was much more mature and knew how to make movies of good taste on socially relevant issues. The theme of the woman who lives as a 'mistress' of the man she loves because he prefers not to get married was very daring in those days. The social background was also cleverly handled. One scene is particularly impressive and intelligent: when J. Crawford, just about to cross a railroad, stops to wait a train go slowly by and, through each window that passes, she has a glimpse of how the other half lives, just as though she were watching a movie. A visually very inspired moment.

I am not a Joan Crawford fan, but I have come to appreciate her acting, especially in her early career. This film, released in 1931, shows her promise as an actress (not to mention Gable, who always displayed a magnetism that lit up the screen). Joan would star in another film titled "Possessed" in 1947, but they are two different stories. In this pre-Code story, adapted from a play, she is Marian Martin, a small-town girl who works in a box factory, but is determined to get ahead, though she sees no prospects locally.

A train passing through town slows and stops in front of her. Through the windows, she sees highlights of the high life, the life of the big city, promising wealth and romance. It is a wonderful scene. As a result, she makes her way to New York City, where she meets Mark Whitney (Clark Gable), a wealthy, unmarried attorney who immediately likes her no-nonsense honesty. They become involved, but he has no plans to marry her.

Crawford is vivacious and convincing in the role, showing a wide range of emotions. The film spotlights her beauty and her talent. In one scene, she sings in French, German and English. The song is "How Long Will it Last?"--an appropriate choice. The script is intelligent and the directing is clever and inventive.

There is only one section of the film that did not ring true, but it sets up a scene that is the dramatic climax of the film. As a whole, this film is well worth seeing.

Poor factory girl (Joan Crawford) goes to New York to find fame and fortune. She quickly becomes a "kept" woman for a rich lawyer (Clark Gable--without his moustache). But she can't keep her past away forever and things start to go terribly wrong.

Strong (for 1931), short (71 minutes) pre-Code drama. The script is sharp and believable, the direction good and there are some incredibly lavish settings. Also Crawford and Gable are just great in their roles and both of them look incredibly beautiful. There was a brief part at the end that I didn't buy, but that didn't destroy the picture at all. Well worth seeing for anybody, but a definite must for Crawford and Gable fans.

Excellent soaper with a Joan Crawford billed above the soon-to-be superstar Clark Gable. The possibility of upward mobility afforded to women, especially at this time during the Great Depression, remains a theme of interest today. Women can play on men and get upward mobility but there is often a price to be paid -- and Joan pays it in this movie.

Excellent photography makes the best of the stars and Adrian's dressing of Joan. Notable train sequence in beginning of film has the poor Joan facing the possibility of the good life if she is willing to defy convention and joint those "inside the car." Gable teaches her how to act and she becomes a refined, but kept, woman. He refuses to marry her for all the "right" reasons but in the end, Joan is affected by society's opinion of women in her station.

Grandstand speech sequence at the end of the film is a bit too unbelievable but my wife was moved to tears when she saw it. One of Joan's better films. Recommended.

I'm giving this one a 7/10 just based on the chemistry of Clark Gable and Joan Crawford alone! If it had been some other couple playing the leads this would only have warranted about a 5/10.

It's another take on one of Joan's shop girl roles that MGM so often cast her in, except here she (Marian) works in a box factory. The rather boorish Al Manning (Wallace Ford) thinks Marian is his for the asking, but Marian has bigger ideas. She has a conversation with a very drunk and wealthy Wally (Skeets Gallagher) who is enjoying the night air on the caboose of a train in the train yard, and he gives her his card and tells her to come see him.

Now Marian goes home to mom and an angry Al - he smells the liquor on her breath - and they have it out. She says she is leaving town and going to meet up with Wally in New York. She says that if she was a man they'd think it was right for her to use her brains to get what she can however she can. Now that last statement is an odd one because Marian behaves quite naively for the next 15 minutes of the film, not brainy at all. She DOES go to New York and she DOES look up Wally...who has little or no memory of her and is displeased to see her. But she catches him in one of his rare sober moments and he tells her upfront the invitation was never sincere, neither is he, and NO he will not introduce her to any of his rich friends. Marian is dejected and ejected. Her lucky break? Two of Wally's rich friends are on the way into his apartment as she leaves and she simply follows them back in. She just plainly asks them if they are rich and single because she has no time to waste on them if they are not!

Now this is all very stupid obvious behavior from Marian, who could easily have become a sadder but wiser girl if any of these men had the drive or ambition to make her one, but she lucks out. Gable's character (Mark Whitney) takes an instant liking to her honesty - you'll find out later why exactly, and the two are an instant couple, but not a married couple, for the next three years, traveling the globe together. Whitney even gives her a fake name and identity - Mrs. Moreland, a divorcée - so they can explain her expensive lifestyle as emanating from alimony. Mark shows her how to speak, how to dress, how to command a household of servants, how to host a dinner party - a complete makeover from the country mouse she was.

Then complications arise. Marian wants marriage that Mark won't give her, and New York's political machine wants Mark to become governor- and that means no mistress. How will this all work out? Watch and find out.

Like I said, nothing unusual here for early 30's MGM - the shop girl and the wealthy guy and the entailing Cinderella transformation, the small minded small town boyfriend, the mom who waits back home with a light in the window, the respectability that a mistress never has, etc. But every time Gable and Crawford are together you can feel the electricity - which was real by the way. The two had an affair for years but never got married because they figured they'd fight as man and wife.

And then there are a couple of coincidences. Here Joan takes on the identity of a divorcée and is taught the etiquette her station as Mark's companion will require. In 1950 she is also given a new name "Lorna Hanson Forbes" and the identity of a divorcée so she can be a married gangster's social companion and mistress with no questions asked. Then there is a film starring Joan with an identical name - "Possessed" - made in 1947. It has a completely different storyline though and is made by a different studio - Warner Brothers.

I'd say watch it, try not to get put out by the forgettable plot with a rather unsatisfactory ending and just note the great chemistry between Gable and Crawford, and really good acting in the supporting roles especially by Skeets Gallagher and Wallace Ford. Recommended.