This weekend I continued my exploration of the Criterion Channel’s collection Columbia Noir with Human Desire.

Human Desire is the story of Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford), recently returned home from the Korean War and now resuming his job as a locomotive engineer. In his absence the Assistant Yard Supervisor Buckley, (Broderick Crawford) has married a much younger woman Vicki, (Gloria Grahame.) Before long there is jealousy, robbery, and murder the staples of American Noir. This is very much like the descriptionprovided by the Criterion Channel and it is in my opinion

dŽsirs humains
human desire
1954
rŽal : Fritz Lang
Broderick Crawford
Gloria Grahame
Glen Ford
Collection Christophel

quite misleading and capture where I think the film took its initial and consequential misstep. The entire movie is told from Jeff’s point of view treating the unfolding events as principally his story and it really isn’t his at all. The story should have been written and presented from Vicki’s point of view. When Buckley, a brute and intellectually challenged man, is fired from his position it falls to Vicki to win him his job back but in doing so triggers his violent jealousy launch a series of events that will entangle Buckley, Vicki, and Jeff in robbery and murder as she desperately tries to survive.

Despite its erroneous point of view Human Desire is a film worth watching. Glenn Ford plays the sort of role that he is best known for the fundamentally decent man though in keep with noir’s traditions he has a difficult time resisting temptation. Broderick Crawford as Buckley convincingly gives us both a man who is dangerous and unpredictable but also deeply flawed and trapped by his own self-doubted that is amplified by his alcoholism, but the real star of this film is the luminous Gloria Grahame. Grahame’s realistic portrayal of a woman desperate to escape her circumstances using the means and methods at her disposal without sliding across into evil is a wonder to behold.  Grahame appeared in many great noirs and died too young at 57 but her star continues to shine bright through her performances such as this one. Direct by Fritz Lang is a competent film though a number of plot threads were either never completed or are used simply as audience misdirection. Particular attention in the story is paid to a distinctive watch and yet that element never closes back to a resolution.

Overall, I enjoyed watching Human Desire but I have no desire to add it permanently to my library.