Human Desire **** (1954, Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Edgar Buchanan) – Classic Movie Review 2,599

Fritz Lang’s moody 1954 thriller film noir Human Desire is a follow-up to his 1953 success The Big Heat, and again stars both Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame. 

Director Fritz Lang’s moody 1954 thriller film Human Desire is a follow-up to his 1953 success The Big Heat, and again stars both Glenn Ford, as a railway engineer Jeff Warren, and Gloria Grahame, as his mistress Vicki Buckley, who pleads with him to murder her husband Carl (Broderick Crawford).

Jeff is a Korean War veteran who returns to his old job with the railroad and boards at the home of co-worker Alec Simmons (Edgar Buchanan) but becomes dangerously involved in a sordid affair with his brutish railroad supervisor Carl’s alluring, sexy and seductive wife Vicki.

Alfred Hayes’s screenplay for Lang’s film noir romantic thriller is based on Émile Zola’s 1890 classic novel La Bête Humaine, which was previously filmed in 1938 as La Bête Humaine by Jean Renoir. Ford lacks its star Jean Gabin’s brooding authority as the hero, but, though he is a much weaker actor and personality, he is still a solid presence, while Grahame is perfect and Crawford ideal.

This distinguished film noir is beautifully directed with a terrifically steamy atmosphere, and is a vivid portrait of life on the wrong side of the tracks.

Also in the cast are Kathleen Case, Peggy Maley, Diane DeLaire, Grandon Rhodes, Paul Brinegar, Victor Hugo Green, Carl Lee, John Pickard, Dan Riss, Dan Seymour, Olan Soule and John Zaremba.

Human Desire is largely shot around El Reno, Oklahoma, and uses the facilities of the Rock Island railroad (now Union Pacific). But some of the moving background shots show East Coast scenes.

It is shot by Burnett Guffey in black and white.

It was released by Columbia Pictures on August 6, 1954 (New York City).

The cast are Glenn Ford as Jeff Warren, Gloria Grahame as Vicki Buckley, Broderick Crawford as Carl Buckley, Edgar Buchanan as Alec Simmons, Kathleen Case as Ellen Simmons, Peggy Maley as Jean, Diane DeLaire as Vera Simmons, Grandon Rhodes as John Owens, Paul Brinegar, Victor Hugo Green, Carl Lee, John Pickard, Dan Riss, Dan Seymour, Olan Soule and John Zaremba.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,599

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