Possessed

Clarence Brown's 1931 film is among the early pairings of Joan Crawford and Clark Gable and carries the frankness of Hollywood before the Hays Code. Marion, a factory worker, wants to trade the assembly line for a penthouse apartment; Mark Whitney, a wealthy and influential lawyer, can make that happen, and gives her everything except a proposal. The film neither condemns nor conceals the arrangement. That Marion becomes a mistress as a deliberate economic choice, and is not punished for it, is an approach that would become impossible after the Code. Crawford plays the desire to move up not with shame but with resolve. The last section looks for a resolution through a political scandal and the tone changes abruptly, which is the period's habit of moral balancing. Who it's for: viewers interested in pre-Code Hollywood and early Crawford and Gable. Who it's not for: anyone troubled by the woman's autonomy being resolved into marriage, or who will find the melodrama excessive.