Cinesnatch: Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Possessed

The transition from natural to artificial
light, as the story is about to segue from
reality into the distorted world of Louise

Joan Crawford plays Louise Howell, a woman we first meet wandering the streets of Los Angeles in a daze looking for a man named David in Possessed (1947). She ends up in a hospital, where her backstory unfolds in flashbacks. We quickly learn that she’s obsessed with dashing playboy David Sutton (Van Heflin) who used her for sex—a key detail that doesn’t register in her brain and leads to her downfall (her consuming one-sided love trumping facts). The plot takes a series of turns and it’s not always clear what is actually occurring in contrast to what Louise busies herself imagining. In her world, it’s impossible for her to consider that David indeed does not love her, which affects her perceptions of reality, as well as projecting agendas on other characters.

While I found myself constantly wanting to slap Louise out of the spell she has put herself under, with patience I got to see the film as a smart examination of mental illness. The shot which stood out for me is the moment the ambulance arrives at the hospital and rolls her out into the building. The dramatic musical pause segues into more foreboding fare after the ambulance circles its way up the Los Angeles Municipal Hospital driveway and gingerly backs up to the entrance. A preceding shot establishes orderlies pulling out Louise lying on the gurney, and then the next moment, the camera dollies out of the vehicle with lens tilted upwards at an angle.

The establishing moment for the rollout before we
cut to the camera's perspective

The camera rolls out

And then tilts downwards, before entering the hospital

Once outside, the focus smoothly lowers almost horizontally and seamlessly rolls through the hospital, gently maneuvering slightly up and down while it turns through the hallway, passes through doors and finally arriving underneath a monstrous, yet clinical spotlight, adorned with mirrors. The contraption looks straight out of The Twilight Zone.

The first things Louise sees in the examination room are
the huge light and strange doctors observing her.

The first shot after the continuous take ends

The continuous shot includes doctors peering over Louise analyzing her vitals, before we finally cut to a catatonic Louise lying in the room. From there, the doctors extract memories from her--some real, others imagined. We watch along, as the story pieces itself back together to its tragic, yet hopeful ending.