Human Desire (1954) is Fritz Lang’s version of the 1890 Émile Zola novel La bête humaine, though as film historian Tony Rayns highlights in the interview featurette that accompanies this release, it’s actually more a remake of an earlier Jean Renoir version of the story from 1938.
It adheres more closely to that film’s stripped-down plot as it follows train engineer Jeff (Ford), returned from the Korean War and back working on the rails. At the same time, drunken gambler and yard supervisor Carl (Crawford) has lost his job for talking back to his boss. He manipulates, threatens and beats his young wife, Vicki (Grahame), into using a contact of hers to get him his job back. When he becomes violently jealous it leads to murder. The abused, despairing Vicki gets close to Jeff and begins to plot with him a permanent way out of her miserable circumstances.
The territory is firmly film noir, with a cast of largely amoral characters slowly destroying each other over the course of the picture. Although that’s a standard for this type of film, it’s taken to comically absurd levels here, stacked as it is with people who seemingly have no redeeming features at all. That matters little if the story is compelling but sadly, Human Desire does not grip, although the central character of Vicki deserves a better film. It doesn’t help that performances are almost all overripe or underplayed. Despite this, it’s not a total bust and clips along at a solid pace, Lang’s direction never less than competent and Alfred Hayes’ script dropping in kernels of good dialogue. If you are someone who appreciates noirs, you’re likely to still find something to enjoy.
As for this disc, it’s not a particularly visually dynamic film but the presentation is mostly pleasingly sharp and with depth, occasional softness aside. As far as extras, alongside the theatrical trailer, the enjoyable interview with Rayns runs to just under half an hour and covers the background of Human Desire, Zola’s novel and the Renoir film and helps establish the context for placing Lang’s version. If you buy the disc, you’ll also get a 40-page collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film from Travis Crawford, Richard Combs and Adam Batty.
Should you wish to spend some time with unpleasant people who do bad things to each other, there’s better choices you can make. However, for those who follow Lang’s career or Ford or the other players, or are fans or students of film noir then this release is recommended for you.
HUMAN DESIRE (1954) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: FRITZ LANG / SCREENPLAY: ALFRED HAYES / STARRING: GLENN FORD, GLORIA GRAHAME, BRODERICK CRAWFORD, EDGAR BUCHANAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
