Possessed (1931)

Writers:

Edgar Selwyn (play)
Lenore J. Coffee (adaptation)

Release Date:

21 November 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Marion is a factory worker who hopes to trade the assembly line, for a beautiful penthouse apartment...

Plot Keywords:

Mistress | Factory Worker | Lawyer | Transformation | Contractor

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Joan Crawford	...	Marian Martin
Clark Gable	...	Mark Whitney
Wallace Ford	...	Al Manning
Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher	...	Wally Stuart (as Skeets Gallagher)
Frank Conroy	...	Horace Travers
Marjorie White	...	Vernice LaVerne
John Miljan	...	John Driscoll
Clara Blandick	...	Marian's Mother

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | USA:Approved | UK:PG (re-rating) (1994) | UK:A (original rating)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Edgar Selwyn's play, "The Mirage", opened in New York on 30 September 1920.

Quotes:

Marian Martin, aka Mrs. Moreland: You don't own me. Nobody does. My life belongs to me.
Al Manning: You'll make one fine mess of it.
Marian Martin, aka Mrs. Moreland: It'll still belong to me.
Marian's mother: Don't, Marian, you frighten me when you talk like that.
Marian Martin, aka Mrs. Moreland: If I were a man it wouldn't frighten you! You'd think it was right for me to go out and get anything I could out of life, and use anything I had to get it. Why should men be so different? All they've got are their brains and they're not afraid to use them. Well neither am I!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Stars and Stripes Forever

Joan sings, dances, and gets slapped by Gable

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.