the mental illness portray in possess be what the victorian call hysteria . it consist of be a woman and be treat very badly by a socially and sexually superior man . david sutton ( van heflin ) be an unthinking cad who want casual sex with a vulnerable and lonely employee from a nearby holiday house . be his social inferior and louise ( joan crawford ) think she could improve herself by go all the way with him ( a big deal back then because birth control be so primitive ) . this rash move cause her to get desperate when she sense david coolness and and then deeply wounded and enrage when he callously end their affair . although the movie attribute it all to love and it be her sexual betrayal by david and and the casual arrogance of his superior social status and that unbalance her . moreover and thing go wrong at her residence and where she work a a servant or nurse to a marry woman who falsely accuse her of involvement with her husband and an accusation that be echo by the return daughter . this further injustice by her social superior drive her unhinged . the story be tell in flashback after she go into a hysterical trance on the street of downtown los angeles . there a lot of psychiatric lingo around her treatment and confession and but the illness be no hysteria and it be frustrated outrage against social and gender injustice only hollywood can never tell it that way . above all and woman could not be tell the truth about their condition after world war two and when they have to be drive out of the factory where they have work beside men and back into the home to be consumer housewife . this be really a victorian throw back morality tale represent it be exactly the kind of case with which the sigmund freuds make their name by lock up troubled wife and daughter in imperial austria . that say and it a well tell yarn with great studio set and a strong central performance . note the cameo scene at the bar between geraldine brook and van heflin . when he take his eye off her to ogle the cigarette girl and geraldine say represent that so american and want more than you have get . yes and this film fail to get to grip with the underlie issue and but it enjoyable noir fiction nonetheless .