"Possessed" (1947) is one of Joan Crawford's last great outings as the grand dame of Warner Brothers, in a film so deeply disturbing that even today it tends to hold an audience spellbound in its neurotic tension. After a woman is found wandering the streets and collapses inside a diner, muttering the name 'David' she is rushed to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation. Of course, you just know this is going to end sadly.<br /><br />Crawford plays Louise Howell, nurse to an ailing wealthy recluse. At the same time, she's taken up romantically with the neighbor, David Sutton (Van Helfin). But David recognizes something odd about Louise, something tragic and flawed and oh, so mentally unstable that it scares him into calling the whole affair off – much to Louise's dismay and chagrin. When Louise's elderly charge suddenly dies under mysterious circumstances, Dean Graham (Raymond Massey), the rich widower, asks her to stay on. This, of course, eventually leads to Louise becoming Dean's wife. However, Louise's happiness as the newly christened socialite of the realm is threatened by Dean's daughter, Carol (Geraldine Brooks) who blames – or perhaps intuitively suspects that the death of her mother was no accident.<br /><br />What is particularly shocking about this film is the way in which director, Curtis Bernhardt baits his audience with snippets of murderous intent that are played out for maximum effect and then, later exposed as merely the ravenously dangerous thoughts of the film's protagonist. Yet, if Louise can't discern between what is real and what she imagines out of thin air, then how can we, as an audience? Crawford's performance as Louise is impressive to say the very least. Most convincingly she deteriorates from a congenial heroine to dangerous psychotic before our very eyes. <br /><br />Warner's DVD transfer is not up to snuff. The gray scale has been rendered with deep solid blacks and the maximum amount of detail presented even in the darkest scenes. But there's way too much film grain in many scenes and some severe water damage about 48 minutes into the film (that lasts for less than a minute but gives the illusion of a cluster of fire flies darting about the screen). The audio is mono but cleaned up. Extras include Drew Casper's audio commentary that is spooky in its own right, as well as a featurette proclaiming "Possessed" as the quintessential film noir – the latter is a bone of contention for this reviewer. Although "Possessed" is a fine example of film noir story-telling, it pales to "Mildred Pierce" as far as Crawford film noir vehicles go.