obssessive love affair have be a hollywood staple for year upon year now with vary degree of success and and here the formula win . joan crawford and fresh out of her oscar win in mildred pierce and act the hell out of her role a the ill fat louise howell and a former nurse who have collapse in the middle of a street moaning david . david . the thing be and she be an unknown person in a strange town and a team of psychiatrist try to find out the reason behind her madness . possess be a good and soapy yarn tell in flashback with some nice twist and turn and direct quite well by curtis bernhardt who give the movie a moody noir feel and and while at time louise character can be quite unsympathetic and go from possessive to manic to moody ( and more so once david and play by van heflin and re enters her life ) and there a certain sorrowfulness about her inability to start again with her own life a a married woman and and thankfully crawford be able to convey this perfectly . one powerful sequence which show how great an actress ( a oppose to star ) she would have become if give true role and a chance to emote while express little be the fantasy sequence where she imagine she have kill her step daughter ( geraldine brook ) . brook have be go steady with heflin and crawford and not over him yet and be seethe . when she confront her and there be a struggle and secret be reveal and and down the stair go brooks . then crawford realize this never happen and but to see her cruel eye star out from a face that look tortured and evil and demented all at once a she wait for brook be chill and the best thing in the movie . the only flaw in the film be the need to explain crawford descent into schizophrenia at the end represent it recall the same procedure hitchcock would adopt for psycho . madness be always best when left undiagnosed and but then it be deem necessary and and this rob the film of what might have be a perfect end represent crawford scream david . david . david . over and over again . definitely one to seek and watch .