PimpinAinttEasy
Dear Marlon Brando,I heard you rejected Human Desire because you were scandalized that the guy who made M was making this piece of trash. I agree with you. Sort of.The first half wasn't all that bad. Glen Ford always plays himself, you get Glen Ford in every single movie of his and not the character. I have always liked him. And Gloria Graham is terrific. She is not a conventional beauty but she oozes sex. I guess Broderick Crawford has done better roles than this one.The scenes in the train reminded me of another noir called "The Narrow Margin" which came out a couple of years before Human Desire. But the film never really goes anywhere after a certain point. All the whining and crying by the two female characters towards the end made it tough to watch. It was like a noir in the first half with the tough working class characters and their attitude towards life. The second half was like an intense weepie.All said and done, this film could have been named Horny Males or something.And Marlon, considering some of the films you did in the 50s and 60s ..... this film wouldn't have been all that bad a choice.Best Regards, Pimpin.(6/10)
Michael O'Keefe
The notable Fritz Lang directs this hard-boiled film noir. Lots of railroad footage, passionate acting and a murder in desperation. A Korean War veteran, Jeff Warren(Glenn Ford)returns to his railroad engineer job. Wanting really nothing more, but a quiet life is not in store. Warren meets Vicki Buckley(Gloria Graham)and enters a passionate affair after reluctantly helping her bullish, combustible husband(Broderick Crawford)get away with murder. Vicki is so fed up with her abusive husband, who is Jeff's foreman, that she convincingly dupes her new lover into plotting her spouse's demise.Based on a novel by Emile Zola, HUMAN DESIRE is not full of frills and fancy; just Black & White two-timing homicide. Ford is an everyday man. Graham is alluring in a slutty way. Crawford seems a natural at being pig-headed and gruff. In support: Edgar Buchanan, Peggy Maley, Paul Brineger and Kathleen Case.
mark.waltz
While there are dozens of 1950's films mistakenly labeled as "film noir", "Human Desire" is not one of them. It is definitive of the genre but unfortunately, not one of the best. The opening sequence of a long train ride holds promise of another "Double Indemnity", but it falls short of that promise.Gloria Grahame is one of the best known film noir femme fatales, but unfortunately here is even more cartoonish than ever with her over-accented bosom, helium laced voice and Jessica Rabbit face. She's married to a brute played by Broderick Crawford who after comically bullying Judy Holliday in "Born Yesterday" turns menacing here. He's fired by his boss at the railroad, and Grahame goes to the boss to get hubby's job back. But with a floozy like Grahame (who just cain't say no), it is obvious what will happen, and it leads to murder.This causes Grahame to go after Glenn Ford, another railroad employee, who quickly falls into her web. She tries to get him to knock off her husband which leads to one of the definitive great film noir sequences where Ford follows Crawford through a darkened railroad yard. From here on, its all about Ford finding out what kind of woman Grahame really is, and what brings on hers and Crawford's downfall.The problem of this story is its execution. The characters are not fleshed out enough to be interesting. Grahame, fresh from her best film noir role in "The Big Heat" (also with Ford) isn't as interesting here. There's absolutely no sympathy for her one dimensional character which comes from the maudlin, melodramatic script. This makes the conclusion obvious yet even that doesn't end very conclusive.The shots of the moving train are more interesting than any other thing that happens. Veteran character actor Edgar Buchannan is wasted as Ford's partner.
writers_reign
The definitive version of Zola's La Bete Humaine was made in 1938 by Jean Renoir and featured Jean Gabin, Fernand Ledoux, Julien Carette and weakest link Simone Simon. Lang offers Glenn Ford for Gabin, Brod Crawford for Ledoux, Edgar Buchanan for Carette and Gloria Grahame for Simon. Arguable Graham is marginally better than Simon but one out of four is a lousy average. Both films begin with shots of rails and trains but where Renoirs' are vibrant and exciting Langs' are lacklustre at best. All in all then Lang finishes out of the money, a bad nowhere to Renoir. That's not to say there aren't moments worth watching but these are mainly compositions rather than powerful dramatics. See it for comparison then forget it.
AD
