Phonearl
Good start, but then it gets ruined
Geraldine
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
PimpinAinttEasy
Dear Marlon Brando,I heard you rejected Human Desire because you were scandalized that the guy who made M was making this piece of trash. I agree with you. Sort of.The first half wasn't all that bad. Glen Ford always plays himself, you get Glen Ford in every single movie of his and not the character. I have always liked him. And Gloria Graham is terrific. She is not a conventional beauty but she oozes sex. I guess Broderick Crawford has done better roles than this one.The scenes in the train reminded me of another noir called "The Narrow Margin" which came out a couple of years before Human Desire. But the film never really goes anywhere after a certain point. All the whining and crying by the two female characters towards the end made it tough to watch. It was like a noir in the first half with the tough working class characters and their attitude towards life. The second half was like an intense weepie.All said and done, this film could have been named Horny Males or something.And Marlon, considering some of the films you did in the 50s and 60s ..... this film wouldn't have been all that bad a choice.Best Regards, Pimpin.(6/10)
howdymax
This is Fritz Lang, so one would expect lots of dark emotion, double crossing, and sexual tension. Well, you won't be disappointed. This one has it all. The story is hardly original. In fact, Emile Zola was given story credit. It is a love triangle with Broderick Crawford and Gloria Grahame as an unhappy couple, with Glenn Ford at his somnambulistic best, showing all the emotion of a turnip. Watching him try to generate the emotion required to be the catalyst in a love triangle was almost painful. In fact, he almost sinks this movie into cinematic obscurity. Thankfully, it is resurrected by the performances of his costars. I am always amazed at the on screen sexuality of Gloria Grahame. She is hardly your typical Hollywood beauty. Her features are somehow askew, but she absolutely exudes sex. The other redeeming performance is given by Broderick Crawford. He plays her jealous, out of control husband. He has a natural explosive persona, but in this movie I kept waiting for him to fly off the rails.Speaking of rails. This is a train noir, if there is such a thing. It all takes place around, aboard, and about trains. Glenn Ford is an engineer and Crawford the yard boss. Train buffs will love it. There are numerous scenes of the engineer and passenger compartments, the rail yards, the roundhouse, and plenty of rambling track shots. It is all diesel in the '50's which I think most people would agree was the zenith of train travel in the US.Despite it's predictability and some of it's shortcomings, I still found this movie extremely enjoyable. My only real complaint came at the end, which seemed to leave the viewer at loose ends and feeling somewhat bewildered. Still, if you like trains and dark drama, take a look. It hasn't been around much and the title is fairly generic, so it isn't easy to find, but it is certainly worth the effort.
ecapital46
Two people are murdered in this film by Broderick Crawford and what stood out was that you do not see him being brought to justice for the murders. Not strange by today's movie standards, of course, but movies of this period and earlier seem to always enforce a morality code on wrongdoing, so it was a bit refreshing not to see this film show us that forced consequence. I found the film well directed by Lang and equally acted. Gloria Grahame plays her stereotypical Noir role. If you are going to have a relationship with Ms Grahame in any of her films, you can bet your bottom dollar you are going to be in the middle of intrigue, danger, and complications. This is what she always seems to bring. As one of my co-workers use to say, "she's a pistol." Excellent performances here by all and a film worth viewing. Have not seem the original film on which this is based, so cannot make a comparison.
writers_reign
The definitive version of Zola's La Bete Humaine was made in 1938 by Jean Renoir and featured Jean Gabin, Fernand Ledoux, Julien Carette and weakest link Simone Simon. Lang offers Glenn Ford for Gabin, Brod Crawford for Ledoux, Edgar Buchanan for Carette and Gloria Grahame for Simon. Arguable Graham is marginally better than Simon but one out of four is a lousy average. Both films begin with shots of rails and trains but where Renoirs' are vibrant and exciting Langs' are lacklustre at best. All in all then Lang finishes out of the money, a bad nowhere to Renoir. That's not to say there aren't moments worth watching but these are mainly compositions rather than powerful dramatics. See it for comparison then forget it.
