Considered retrospectively, Possessed was like the final installment of a Joan Crawford trilogy that had begun with her portrayals of neurotic Mildred and continued with destructive Helen. In this “heavy picture” (as she called it), Joan was the extreme character of the previous two: lovesick, psychotic Louise Howell, consumed by a lunatic obsession for a man who does not return her brand of possessive love. Here, characters formerly rendered by
