POSSESSED August 22, 2010

The 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels would give its name to an entire era. Set designers and costumers used Art Deco's bold style to bring cinematic glamour to factory girls, gangsters and socialites alike, and jewelry design was no exception: more than any other period, opulent Deco geometry immediately evokes the elegance of Hollywood in the 20s and 30s. But like any good prop, jewelry needs to say something about character and conflict, and Art Deco, with its infinitely malleable visual
idiom, said it with grace, wit and danger. Join jewelry historian Lisa Schoening on a walk through the glittering jewel box of Art Deco Hollywood, and enjoy Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in 1931's POSSESSED, a film about a girl who dreams big, snags the guy and gets to keep the jewelry.
POSSESSED, 1931, Warner Bros., 76 min. Dir. Clarence Brown. Factory worker Joan Crawford becomes high-powered attorney running for political office, Clark Gable's mistress in this pre-Code classic of sex, Depression-era politics and star chemistry. Crawford's role set the tone for her many movies to come in which she would play working girls on the rise. In this, their third film together, Crawford and Gable clicked onscreen with audiences and each other, engaging in a passionate affair that was widely gossiped about on the MGM lot.