Human Desire (4 stars)

Human Desire, from 1954, is a film noir directed by Fritz Lang, and starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Broderick Crawford.  Complete with such noir staples as the femme fatale and the weak-willed, hormone-driven man who just can't stay away from her, Human Desire is one of the best noirs I've seen in awhile.  I enjoyed every minute of this film.

When he is fired from his job at the local train yard, Carl Buckley (Broderick Crawford) convinces his wife, Vicki (Gloria Grahame), to use her connections with an influential businessman to help him get his job back.  Vicki does, and Carl does; however, when Carl realizes that the man and his sexy, much-younger wife have been lovers, his jealousy cannot be contained.  After forcing Vicki to write a note to the man, wherein she promises to visit his train compartment that evening, Carl stabs him to death in said compartment, while Vicki looks on. Getting back to their own compartment undetected will take some doing, so Vicki flirts a bit with Korean War Veteran, Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford), who has recently returned to town after a 3-year absence.

When the dead body is discovered and an investigation begun, for whatever reason, Jeff doesn't reveal to anyone that he ran into Vicki Buckley in the corridor outside the dead man's room.  Of course, Vicki is grateful for Jeff's silence, and the two begin to get close to each other.

Eventually, Jeff and Vicki embark on a passionate affair, but with her husband hanging on to the note declaring her intention to make a visit to the dead man's compartment, Vicki knows she is trapped.  Her only escape is her husband's death---and she will lie, scheme, and seduce to convince Jeff to bring that death to pass. Does Jeff kill Carl?  Does Vicki get her letter back?  These are the questions that play out in this exciting film.

For me, this was an incredibly-directed film---Fritz Lang was in top form here.  Also, because I'm totally in love with passenger trains (it's a 40's thing!), I loved that the setting was primarily a train or train yard.  The setting just added to my enjoyment.  Acting wise, I think Broderick Crawford was very good in his role---he always excelled at portraying a boorish brute of a man.  Glenn Ford was solid and gave a good, though not spectacular, performance. The real star of the film, though, was Gloria Grahame.  She was totally terrific in this role; I have to admit, though, I'm not a huge fan of her.  I'm not sure why her face always seems frozen and why she hardly opens her mouth when she speaks, but those things are always a bit of a distraction for me.  Still, though, she played the sexy vamp perfectly.  All those things combined to make for a very good film...one I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend.

The film is out on DVD and should be quite easy to track down.  Additionally, it's on the TCM schedule for Saturday, March 31, 2012, so you could easily catch it then.

Happy viewing!!