Human Desire (1954)

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Émile Zola (novel) and
Alfred Hayes (writer)

Release Date:

5 August 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir

Tagline:

She was born to be bad...to be kissed...to make trouble!

Plot:

Engineer Jeff, returning from Korea, falls in Love with his co-worker Carl's wife Vicky, who both commited a murder...

Plot Keywords:

Train | Foreign Language Adaptation | Railroad | Based On Novel

Cast

Glenn Ford	...	Jeff Warren
Gloria Grahame	...	Vicki Buckley
Broderick Crawford	...	Carl Buckley
Edgar Buchanan	...	Alec Simmons
Kathleen Case	...	Ellen Simmons
Peggy Maley	...	Jean
Diane DeLaire	...	Vera Simmons
Grandon Rhodes	...	John Owens

Also Known As:

The Human Beast (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | UK:X (1954) | West Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-16 | Spain:13 | USA:Approved (PCA #16878, Adult Audience) | Sweden:15 | Argentina:13

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Fritz Lang had desperately wanted Peter Lorre to play Jeff Warren, but Lang had treated Lorre so abusively during the making of M (1931) that the actor refused.

Quotes:

Ellen Simmons: What would you men do if there were no women around to sew your buttons on ?
Alec Simmons: Without women we wouldn't need any buttons !

Movie Connections:

Version of La bestia humana (1957)

Hormones Screaming Loud And Clear

I don't think it was Fritz Lang's fault that Human Desire did not quite turn out like the Jean Renoir film of Emile Zola's La Bete Humaine, let alone the novel itself. Poor Fritz was battling the Code which demanded some kind of happy ending. In any event I'll be viewing and reviewing the Renoir film soon I hope for comparison.

In any event part of the reason that Fritz Lang did this film for Columbia I'm sure was Harry Cohn's desire to team Ford and Gloria Grahame once again. The year before the two of them had done so well in The Big Heat one of the best films that any of the three of them made. And Ford was a good cop and Grahame was her usual tramp in that one who provided information to nail the bad guys at the cost of her life. Seemed logical to let them steam up the screen again.

This time Ford is a railroad engineer newly returned from service in Korea to his former job. Ford's bunking in temporarily with his old friend Edgar Buchanan and his daughter Diane DeLaire has eyes for him.

A man with a not so good domestic situation is fellow worker Broderick Crawford married to Gloria Grahame. Given the roles Grahame normally played that's a given. Crawford gets himself fired, but Grahame knows railroad big shot Grandon Rhodes from way back when and he persuades Grahame to go visit him. Why when the inevitable occurs should Crawford be surprised, but he is and he gets insanely jealous.

So much so that he kills Rhodes in his own private compartment aboard a train where Ford just happens to be hitching a ride back. He sees Grahame in the railroad car shortly after the crime, but at the inquest doesn't give her away. Now his hormones are screaming loud and clear.

Ford's far from noble here, but it's so much worse in the Zola novel and the Renoir film that starred Jean Gabin in the role Ford played. But Lang had those Code parameters and his film instead of spicing hot, comes out cold and tepid.