Possessed (1931)

Factory girl Marian Martin has two ways out of poverty: brains and beauty. But it's 1928; and brains don't help a girl much unless she uses them to promote her other asset. So in no time Marian's living on Park Avenue; draped in designer gowns; dripping in jewels; and cuddled up with a man who isn't her husband. Joan Crawford plays the lollipop and Clark Gable plays the sucker she lands -- and eventually comes to love -- in this pre-Code scorcher that expertly mixes greed; ambition; politics and sex into a frank portrait of a world where men have power and women have a sell-by date stamped on their flesh. Share the glamour and the heartache as Marian discovers that to possess the things she wants; she must be Possessed.

• drama