Undescribable Perfection

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Fritz Lang's Human Desire is well worth the watch for any fan of film noir, as it is truly competent in that respect. Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame are back together following the superbly good The Big Heat a year earlier, although this time the result isn't nearly as interesting. Grahame as the femme fatale is the high point of this movie for me, Glenn Ford certainly doesn't disappoint, and although I was never a big fan of Broderick Crawford, his performance here is apt.These back-to-back movies starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame remind me of Lang's earlier works, The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street, both starring the wonderful Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett in some of the finest film noirs out there.Thinking of that connection, I can't help but compare the ending of The Woman in the Window to the ending of Human Desire. The former's ending left me flabbergasted; I won't spoil it, but it made my jaw drop. Some would say it was a terrible ending, but I don't think so when considering the limitations of the Hays code back then. In that context, I feel like the ending of The Woman in the Window was the best choice Lang could have made to avoid compromising the story.The ending of Human Desire, however, is utterly disappointing. It can hardly be said to be an ending at all, as it feels more like the result of the production running out of money, time or creativity than anything else. What's even stranger is how this ending ties in with the Hays code limitations considered earlier. Granted, this is much later than The Woman in the Window, but unless I'm mistaken, the film still fell under the code's scrutiny; from what I read, the nail in the coffin only came in 1959 with films like Some Like It Hot. Suffice to say, the bad guy gets away with it in this one, although this doesn't feel remotely satisfying or interesting, more like an afterthought.Regardless of the poor ending, Human Desire is still well worth the watch and is a fine example of later film noir.

Volatile drunk Carl Buckley gets fired from the train yard. He gets his flirtatious young wife Vicki to convince railroad executive John Owens to give his job back. Unbeknownst to Carl, the two have a history and she gives John sexual favor. Carl grows violently jealous and has Vicki lure John onto a train. Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford) encounters and is distracted by Vicki as Carl murders John.This is a dark melodramatic noir of non-sympathetic characters with no rooting interest. Gloria Grahame is a great saucy, full-on femme-fatale. I want to like Glenn Ford more but I don't. It's a lurid tale and perfect good for its genre. Fritz Lang's directing is good but it could be more stylishly dark. Overall, it is more melodrama than to my liking.

"Human Desire" (1954) is technically a remake of Jean Renoir's "La Bete Humaine" (1938), which featured Spencer Tracy look-alike Jean Gabin and Simone Simon; which itself was an adaptation of French Naturalist writer Emile Zola's novel. But director Fritz Lang takes his version in an entirely different direction, turning the story from psychological thriller to film noir masterpiece by focusing on the two-timing woman (Vicki Buckley - played by Gloria Grahame).Renoir's "La Bete Humaine" had instead focused on the exploring the mind of Gabin's protagonist (Lantier); specifically his genetic curse of brutality and rage. His occupation of train engineer and the images of train tracks are used to reinforce the inevitability of his fate.In Lang's version this character (Jeff Warren - played by Glenn Ford) has no dimensionality, the train tracks reinforce his straight and narrow nature, he is not bent and his train engine must be placed in a roundhouse to be given a different direction.There are intersecting tracks in the train yard and Jeff's moral compass is only challenged in that location. The film's two most suspenseful sequences occur in the train yard and Lang amplifies the discordance with disorienting changes of camera angles and at one point an expressionistic jump-cut as Jeff and Vicki suddenly bridge the distance between each other.But this is Grahame's film; her all-time best performance and Lang's best work as an acting for the camera director. She gently teases this role, when others would fill it with overwrought melodrama. Her Vicki Buckley is the most authentic and complex heroine/fatale of the Film Noir genre; perhaps of all cinema. The character is a canvas filled with shades of gray; at once manipulative, vulnerable, self-destructive, and haunting. Much of Grahame's effectiveness is nonverbal and much of it derives from her physical qualities and inherent fragility. All very fitting as Zola was the pioneer of literary naturalism.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

While this movie is far from perfect, it is very good and very enjoyable mostly due to a dynamite performance by Gloria Graham--a highly underrated femme fatale. Like so many of her films, she plays a bad lady whose motivations are never exactly clear--you just know she is bad news! When the film begins, you are most likely going to be surprised by the bizarre casting (one of the few parts of the film I didn't like). The audience is expected to believe that ugly old Broderick Crawford is married to sexy Gloria Graham! While having the toad-like Crawford married to Judy Holiday in "Born Yesterday", he was a rich man in this film, so his marrying this pretty young woman was believable. But, in "Human Desire", Crawford is an engineer on a train--not the sort of man you'd ever believe would marry Graham (or vice-versa). On top of that, Crawford is an angry brute of a husband--making you wonder why she would stay.Early in the film, Crawford loses his job and wants his young wife to use her sexy wiles on the boss to help him get his old job. Well, this plan works all too well--and then, inexplicably, Crawford is angry at her and the boss and kills the man!! At this point, Crawford and Graham both hide the murder. But, after the killing, Graham is spotted by Glenn Ford--and him seeing her near the corpse could mean she and Crawford could go to prison. But Graham uses all her many charms to weasel her way into Ford's heart--and he's hooked. What happens next is for you to see. However, I did not adore the ending--mostly because it was gritty but not nearly as dark and horrible as I would have liked! While the dialog and style were clearly film noir, other noir films might have gone the extra step and made the ending even more downbeat. Still, it's a very good film--and you have to love Graham's performance. She was terrific.By the way, although not as badly cast as Crawford, Glenn Ford was also cast as a train engineer. Maybe I'm wrong, but this just seemed a bit odd to me.