Like 1947’s Possessed, Autumn Leaves is another earnest exploration of mental illness starring Joan Crawford. Yet also like Possessed, this doesn’t mean it’s a dry, do-gooder drama. As soon as middle-aged, independent typist Milly Wetherby (Crawford) meets the younger, eager Burt Hanson (Cliff Robertson), we can tell something is off about him. But when we eventually learn the details behind his emotional instability they’re shockingly lurid, especially for 1956. Crawford gives a fairly restrained performance given that she’s the more stable character this time—though she does deliver a verbal takedown of Vera Miles, as a woman from Burt’s past, where all the Crawford claws come out. Directed by Robert Aldrich, who would work with the star again in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
(3/22/2022)
