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)

The notable Fritz Lang directs this hard-boiled film noir. Lots of railroad footage, passionate acting and a murder in desperation. A Korean War veteran, Jeff Warren(Glenn Ford)returns to his railroad engineer job. Wanting really nothing more, but a quiet life is not in store. Warren meets Vicki Buckley(Gloria Graham)and enters a passionate affair after reluctantly helping her bullish, combustible husband(Broderick Crawford)get away with murder. Vicki is so fed up with her abusive husband, who is Jeff's foreman, that she convincingly dupes her new lover into plotting her spouse's demise.Based on a novel by Emile Zola, HUMAN DESIRE is not full of frills and fancy; just Black & White two-timing homicide. Ford is an everyday man. Graham is alluring in a slutty way. Crawford seems a natural at being pig-headed and gruff. In support: Edgar Buchanan, Peggy Maley, Paul Brineger and Kathleen Case.

While there are dozens of 1950's films mistakenly labeled as "film noir", "Human Desire" is not one of them. It is definitive of the genre but unfortunately, not one of the best. The opening sequence of a long train ride holds promise of another "Double Indemnity", but it falls short of that promise.Gloria Grahame is one of the best known film noir femme fatales, but unfortunately here is even more cartoonish than ever with her over-accented bosom, helium laced voice and Jessica Rabbit face. She's married to a brute played by Broderick Crawford who after comically bullying Judy Holliday in "Born Yesterday" turns menacing here. He's fired by his boss at the railroad, and Grahame goes to the boss to get hubby's job back. But with a floozy like Grahame (who just cain't say no), it is obvious what will happen, and it leads to murder.This causes Grahame to go after Glenn Ford, another railroad employee, who quickly falls into her web. She tries to get him to knock off her husband which leads to one of the definitive great film noir sequences where Ford follows Crawford through a darkened railroad yard. From here on, its all about Ford finding out what kind of woman Grahame really is, and what brings on hers and Crawford's downfall.The problem of this story is its execution. The characters are not fleshed out enough to be interesting. Grahame, fresh from her best film noir role in "The Big Heat" (also with Ford) isn't as interesting here. There's absolutely no sympathy for her one dimensional character which comes from the maudlin, melodramatic script. This makes the conclusion obvious yet even that doesn't end very conclusive.The shots of the moving train are more interesting than any other thing that happens. Veteran character actor Edgar Buchannan is wasted as Ford's partner.

Unlike most of the reviews here, I see this films as a treatise on broken and betrayed love.First there is the innocent love of the family daughter who looks up to Jeff as the hero returned from the war. This love is betrayed by Jeff not being the man of her dreams, but rather somewhat proficient womanizer who acquires interest in Vicky, the wife of his work colleague Carl.Second there is the love of Vicki to her husband Carl, which is betrayed by Carl's stupid and insensitive character. Carl, having been fired from his job because of his rowdy nature, pushes Vicki against her will to 'negotiate' the job back through Vicki's former 'contacts' to a top level railroad employee Owens. Vicki refuses multiple times - a history of abuse is hinted between her and Owens. However insensitive Carl fails to catch the reasons of Vicki's refusal and pushes her against her will until she yields to her husband. Only when now disillusioned Vicki returns from a hours long 'negotiations' with her former boss and heads to the shower Carl begins to suspect something is wrong.Third, there is the brutal, dependent and jealous love of Carl to his wife Vicki. Carl, smitten by jealousy, develops a plan. He forces Vicki to play along by writing a letter summoning Owens to a secret rendezvous in a train sleeper carriage. There Carl murders him and takes Vicki's letter from the body to be used as a guarantee against her.Through Carl's actions love between them is broken. Consequently Vicki begins an affair with Jeff, who saw her in the train at the night of the murder. The relationship develops into love, with the pair meeting behind Carl's back at railroad yard shacks and Vicki's relative's apartment. However in a small town such an affair cannot be concealed. The ill-fated and ill-chosen desire causes suffering and alienation. A plan develops to rid Vicki of Carl - now a once again sacked drunk who drowns his sorrows at the local watering hole. But Jeff can't bring himself to kill such a defenseless man. He grabs the letter, unknown by Carl, and returns it to Vicki at the same time dumping her. Vicki, who is now free, pleads and cries for Jeff to take her, but he refuses coldly and walks away from the mess, while suspecting that Vicki has for the whole time only been using him.The definitive moment of the movie for me comes at the train car in which Vicki, now free but manifestly alone, plans to ride away. Carl stumbles in the car and just in the same way as Vicki moments ago he in a humiliated manner laments his love and need for her and pleads for her to stay, even offering to give her the incriminating letter (which she already has). But as Vicki had learned nothing. Just like Jeff walked away she too rejects Carl's desperate plea, similar to her own. When the train with Jeff in its cabin - dance tickets given to him by the employee's daughter in his hand - speeds in the distance, Carl strangles Vicki in the compartment.Love is actually not the Hollywood solution to everything and the force that makes one overcome every obstacle. Rather, it can be very ugly, confusing and depressing human desire.I'm giving this movie a rare 10/10. Aside from excellent directing and especially wonderful lighting (e.g. Jeff and Vicki in the rail yard shack: when you try to hide, you are actually right at the spotlight) I very much enjoyed Lang's interpretation of the source material. Unlike Zola's original, which seems nihilistic to me, Lang's interpretation is realistic and does not fall into unnecessary celebration of inhumanity. That is it's strength. Though the murky waters of depraved love abound, there is yet hope and a glimpse of true love in the form of the dance tickets in Jeff's hands.