Human Desire (1954)

Directed by Fritz Lang. Starring Gloria Grahame, Glenn Ford, Broderick Crawford, Kathleen Case, Edgar Buchanan, Peggy Maley, Diane DeLaine, Grandon Rhodes.

Another version of Émile Zola’s novel “La Bête Humaine”, most famously produced as a same-named work in 1938 by a different European director who later made some films in America, Jean Renoir. Jealousy drives animalistic Crawford to commit murder, and since he holds evidence that would incriminate her, wife Grahame seduces a potential witness: train engineer Ford. Not as potent a star-director pairing as 1953’s The Big Heat—Ford is frankly miscast in the role, unconvincing whenever he needs to radiate crazed sexual hunger or disquieting fear—and it’s no chink in the armor of Renoir’s version, but this liberal adaptation is an absorbing melodrama, dismal and malevolent, one of those uncommon instances where a noir-influenced picture during the Hays Code era left a few individuals “unpunished” by the end. Directed with an interfering hand at times, but the mood being evoked and the brooding nature of the chief performances are both effective. Scripted by Albert Hayes, and photographed by Burnett Guffey.

70/100