Human Desire (1954)

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Alfred Hayes (screenplay)
Émile Zola (novel)

Release Date:

5 August 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir | Romance

Tagline:

A rarity on the screen... a RAW slice of life!

Plot:

A Korean War vet returns to his job as a railroad engineer and becomes involved in a sordid affair with a co-worker's wife and murder.

Plot Keywords:

Railroad | Murder | Temper | Wife Beater | Alcoholic

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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Paul Brinegar	...	Brakeman (uncredited)
Victor Hugo Greene	...	Davidson (uncredited)
Don C. Harvey	...	Yard Dispatcher (uncredited)
Carl Lee	...	John Thurston (uncredited)
John Maxwell	...	Chief of Police (uncredited)
John Pickard	...	Matt Henley (uncredited)
Dan Riss	...	Prosecutor Gruber (uncredited)
Dan Seymour	...	Duggan - Bartender (uncredited)
Olan Soule	...	Lewis (uncredited)
Hal Taggart	...	Gruber's Assistant at Inquest (uncredited)
John Zaremba	...	'Russ' Russell, Train Conductor (uncredited)

Directed by
Fritz Lang

Writing credits
Alfred Hayes		(screenplay)
Émile Zola		(novel "La Bête Humaine") (as Emile Zola)

Produced by
Lewis J. Rachmil	....	producer

Original Music by
Daniele Amfitheatrof

Cinematography by
Burnett Guffey		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Aaron Stell

Art Direction by
Robert Peterson

Set Decoration by
William Kiernan

Costume Design by
Jean Louis		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Clay Campbell	....	makeup artist
Helen Hunt	....	hair stylist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Milton Feldman	....	assistant director

Sound Department
John P. Livadary	....	recording supervisor (as John Livadary)

Music Department
Morris Stoloff	....	conductor
Maurice De Packh	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1954) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Film-Verleih (1954) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Columbia Film-Verleih (1955) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD) (Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 2)
• GoodTimes Home Video (199?) (USA) (VHS) (pan and scan)
• Suevia Video (199?) (Spain) (VHS) (dubbed in Spanish)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Spain:13 | USA:Approved (PCA #16878, Adult Audience) | Sweden:15 | Argentina:13 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | UK:X (1954) | West Germany:16 (f) | UK:PG (2010)

Filming Locations:

Columbia/Sunset Gower Studios - 1438 N. Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

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.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Jeff Warren is shown operating the throttle, three quick shots show the throttle in widely different positions with the middle footage being a shot of an actual trainman operated throttle. In reality, no throttle would ever be moved between positions that quickly as it would make for a violent ride if it did not actually pull the cars apart at their couplers.

Quotes:

[First lines]
John Thurston:Good to see you back, Jeff.
Jeff Warren:Town looks great
John Thurston:80% better than Korea, I'll bet.
Jeff Warren:100%.
John Thurston:No medals?
Jeff Warren:They ran out of them.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Girl on the Late, Late Show (1974) (TV)

Fine Noir

War veteran Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford) returns home and takes up his old position as a train engineer. One night Warren makes a pass at a friendly woman on a train, but she leaves him in a hurry, next day warren learns that a passenger wass murdered on the train he was travelling on. He is called as a witness at the inquiry. He tells the judge he saw nothing on the train and hides the fact from the judge that he unwittingly made advances on fellow passenger Vicki Buckley, the wife of his co worker Carl Buckley (Broderick Crawford). Warren and Vicki soon hit it off, but soon Warren believes Vicky may have had something to do with the killing. Nice thriller with some great railroad footage, but you might be hard pressed to recognize it as a Lang film. Grahame is especially good in a particularly slutty role