ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

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

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

poe426 HUMAN DESIRE has it all: a jealous husband (Broderick Crawford), his mousy but sensuous wife (Gloria Grahame), a Korean war vet with an unshakable moral code (Glenn Ford) and all the murder and duplicity one could ask for in a Fritz Lang movie. Like almost everything Lang ever did, HUMAN DESIRE boasts superbly symmetrical cinematography (the scenes of the railroad yard are some of the best of their kind ever committed to film), great sets, and an expert sense of staging (not to mention solid performances from all of the leads, an aspect often overlooked when people assess Lang's films). Storywise, HUMAN DESIRE lives up to its title- and with an outstanding and unusual ending that comes as a bit of a surprise.

mark.waltz 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.

wes-connors Train conductor Glenn Ford (as Jeff Warren) returns from Korean war service. Back on the home-front, Mr. Ford learns hulky co-worker Broderick Crawford (as Carl Buckley) has been promoted to railroad "yard master" and has acquired a beautiful wife, seductive Gloria Grahame (as Vicki). But, things aren't going as well as they seem for Mr. Crawford. Fired from his job, Crawford asks Ms. Grahame to use her charms to talk the boss into rehiring her husband. When he realizes Grahame used sexual favors to help him, Crawford beats her up. Then, Grahame decides to seduce Ford, and have him get rid of Crawford, who has become a killer… This unimaginative reworking of a standard melodrama is most recognizable as Emile Zola's "La Bête Humaine". The script and players lack psychological depth, although Grahame helps simply by being on screen. Even with curvier Kathleen Case (as Ellen Simmons) in the cast, Grahame commands your attention; her performance suggests things the film left out. Moreover, it's directed by Fritz Lang and photographed by Burnett Guffey, with occasional flair.****** Human Desire (8/5/54) Fritz Lang ~ Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford

butchfilms I liked this movie very much, it's entertaining. The performances, the characters, the plot, the dialog, the way it looks are very good. The only weak point of the movie is the character of Ellen Simmons which I found very naive even though this kind of characters were very common in the movies of that time.Jeff Warren returns to his former job as a train conductor after fighting in the Korea war but he will get involve with one of his coworker's wife beginning a secret relationship that could lead him to commit murder in order to get her free from a terrible thing that she and her husband have done ..... If you are a film-noir's fan then this is a must see for you.8 stars = very good