Fate and free will, two philosophical concepts that go to the heart of the human condition and form the basis of a good deal of religious thinking and debate. They loom large in the world of film noir too, though that shouldn’t come as any great surprise since art and our perception of our place in the scheme of things are inseparably linked. Fritz Lang’s Human Desire (1954), made as he was approaching the end of his time in Hollywood, posits both fate and free will as drivers of his characters and invites viewers to make up their own minds on which exerts the more powerful influence. I’m of the opinion that Lang himself regards both of these concepts as being in play simultaneously and that there are certain points at which individuals have the opportunity to exercise their free will in order to determine which path of fate they will lock themselves into.
If one were to seek a visual metaphor for fate as a fixed and predetermined path, then a railway line is as good a one as any. Sleek and clean, indicative of precision and order, the lines forge the way ahead, carrying their passengers to a destination that lies at the end of the track as sure as a compass needle points to north. Yet the lines run in more than one direction and points do exist where it’s possible to shunt from one to the other. Human Desire opens with those railroad lines and the locomotives that carry all kinds of people to all kinds of places, starting and ending with absolute certainty at predefined locations that can no more be avoided or cheated than birth and death themselves. In between though, the choices are available, laid before the driver as he advances and by extension before those he brings along with him on the journey. Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford) is an engineer on the railroad, back home and back in his old job after serving in the Korean War. He is very much a regular guy doing a regular job, following those clearly defined lines in life in many ways. There’s nothing particularly special about him, he’s no medal adorned hero nor does he profess to have any ambitions beyond the desire for an uneventful life. However, a movie with this title must necessarily focus on desires affecting all kinds of people and even changing according to circumstances. Carl Buckley (Broderick Crawford) is an old acquaintance, a man who has risen to assistant yard master while Warren was off at war. He’s a blunt, brutish character, loud of mouth and quick of temper who manages to get himself fired for quarreling with his supervisor.
Desperate to get his job back – he’s only got a few more years to do before he qualifies for a pension after all – he badgers his wife into interceding on his behalf with a big city businessman who he figures has sufficient clout to see him reinstated. His wife Vicki (Gloria Grahame) is much younger and it’s immediately clear from her reaction that there is some history involving herself and the corporate bigwig that goes beyond the fact her mother was once his housekeeper. This is the catalyst for the snarl up in the lives of all concerned that follows. It’s made clear that Vicki gets Carl his job back by offering sexual favors. Even though he brought about this situation and essentially forced his wife into a compromising position, Carl is affronted, savagely beating her and making her an unwilling accessory to murder. A sordid business all round and one whose spreading ripples draw in Jeff Warren, who just happens to be riding the same train when the killing takes place and subsequently finds himself fatally attracted to Vicki.
Does one slaying inevitably lead to another? Do abusive, dehumanizing relationships become habit forming and addictive? Are the patterns woven by rotten choices and poor judgement indelible? Or can a virtual lever be pulled at the crucial point and send a life back onto a track that hauls it away from destruction? All of these questions are posed during the course of Human Desire and are answered at least in part by the close. While I’ve no wish to take any credit away from scriptwriter Alfred Hayes, adapting Jean Renoir’s own adaptation of an Ćmile Zola novel, it seems clear enough that these are themes Lang addressed on multiple occasions and thus carry the director’s imprint too.
Glenn Ford’s everyman qualities are to the fore in Human Desire. He plays Jeff Warren with a directness and simplicity that befits an uncomplicated working man who is unexpectedly snared in a web of temptation and desire. He is faced with the dilemma of succumbing to the vagaries of fate or using his free will to chart an alternative course. Ford’s ability to present frankness alongside a hint of personal dissatisfaction and discomfort works well under the circumstances. I see a touch of resentment early on in his realization that men like Buckley have prospered while he was doing his duty in Korea, it’s just barely there but I think it helps color some of his subsequent actions and decisions. In contrast, Gloria Grahame’s mistreated femme fatale is anything but straightforward, veering from victim to manipulator, cowering one moment and goading the next, and effortlessly alluring throughout. Her work alongside Ford here makes for an interesting companion piece to their previous collaboration with Lang in The Big Heat. Crawford too is neatly cast, by turns shambling and violent he’s a doomed figure haunted by his inadequacy and too ineffectual to challenge his own fate. On the other hand, Edgar Buchanan and Diane DeLaire as Ford’s landlord/colleague and his wife provide an alternative take on marriage. Their affectionate devotion in effect represents the other route available to Ford, in stark contrast to the dysfunctional dynamic of the Grahame-Crawford mismatch.
Human Desire ought to be easy enough to view these days. I have the UK Blu-ray from Eureka, a dual format release that looks terrific, and there is a Kino version available in the US as well. The main supplemental feature on the Eureka Blu-ray consists of an interview with Tony Rayns which fills in some background information on the making of the movie as well as comments on scriptwriter Hayes. I’m not sure the contributor fully gets the film though and he raises a number of points I found myself taking issue with, not least that tiresome critical gambit of looking at movies in terms of what they are not rather than what they are. Anyway, his is an interesting perspective, even if I don’t share all his conclusions. Personally, I’ve always been fond of Human Desire for its thoughtful exploration of themes and motifs that frequently grace Fritz Lang’s movies. Well worth checking out.
Riding the High Country 
Well said Colin. I have the same Blu-ray and I know what you mean about the comments made. I fall prey to that myself fairly frequently so can’t point the finger but there is more than enough meat on the bone without worrying about what’s already been bitten off (sic). I think there is enough character work to stop it feeling too implausible, depressing or indeed too deterministic. Which reminds me, must rewatch the Renoir original, it’s been ages!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think most of us are guilty at one time or another of wanting stories to be more than they are, or something different anyway. Yes, I’ve done it myself but I do try not to, really any piece of work deserves to be taken in its own terms.This is something that comes up a lot with remakes, adaptations etc.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gloria Grahame could do no wrong at this time. And she seemed to deliver whatever her director wanted from her.
LikeLike
This is true. However, her movie career went off the boil within about two years, which is a great shame.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That scene with her and Robert Ryan in ‘Odds Against Tomorrow’. Wow. Colin, have you ever read or seen the movie starring Annette Benning about Grahame ‘Film stars don’t die in Liverpool’? I still need to check it out. Benning reminds me of her in ‘The Grifters’ in that superb performance.
LikeLike
Chris, I missed Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool when it was released theatrically. I’d planned to see it but for some reason I can’t recall now that didn’t happen and it’s eluded me since. The Grifters is a very dark and compelling neo-noir and while I hadn’t though of that before maybe there is something of Gloria Grahame about Bening’s performance. I must look out for that next time I see the movie.
LikeLike
I think Ms. Benning is a longtime fan of Grahame as when the movie came out a few years back she introduced a suite of Grahame’s films on TCM such as ‘The Bad and the Beautiful’ speaking very interestingly on each one. Very likable person whose life thankfully doesn’t seem as frantic and desperate as Ms. Grahame’s became.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, she does come across well any time I’ve seen her.
LikeLike
The tendency of critics and commentators to get upset because a movie is not the movie they wanted really irks me.
It’s even worse when they start twisting things so they can pretend the movie says what they wanted it to say, rather than what the director wanted to say.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t get too worked up over what filmmakers might, or might not, want to say – there are certainly times when movies make points that were not consciously planned by directors etc, that seem to grow naturally out of the material but I don’t believe a lack of deliberate planning or conception invalidates a point or theme.
LikeLike
I have no problems with commentators pointing out things that the director might not have been consciously aware of doing.
I get annoyed when a commentator inserts a message into a movie and that message is clearly just not there. It only exists in the person’s head. It’s something they’ve tried to shoehorn into the movie, invariably for ideological reasons.
LikeLike
It’s like when they asked Faulkner about his story ‘The Bear’ and what was all the symbols the bear stood for. ‘Well’ he drawled ‘I just thought it was a story about a bear’.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have to admire Glenn Ford’s approach. Not a showy actor. He just gets on with the job and delivers extremely good performances. Definitely not an Oscar-bait actor.
LikeLike
Ford was a very internalized performer, lots of undercurrents that were only hinted at on the surface. Dana Andrews had a similar quality.
LikeLike
Yes, I like Dana Andrews as an actor as well.
It’s the kind of acting that is much more difficult to pull off successfully than exaggerated histrionic performances.
LikeLike
I like Dana Andrews too. Great performer with great movies under his belt. Love ‘Laura’, ‘Best Years’, and ‘Canyon Passage’ as some of my favorites films and he helps make them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dana Andrews did great work for Otto Preminger. Where the Sidewalk Ends. And Fallen Angel (one of my favourite noirs).
LikeLike
I rewatched Daisy Kenyon the other day, and wrote a bit on it to post later in the month, and I thought Preminger got another strong bit of work out of Andrews there.
LikeLike
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Daisy Kenyon. I saw it years ago and I remember liking it very much.
Otto Preminger was on fire at that period. Just one great movie after another. He just couldn’t put a foot wrong. And he could get great performances from both actors and actresses. Jean Simmons in Angel Face! Looking at her career overall you wouldn’t expect her to be able to be one of the greatest of all femmes fatales, But obviously Preminger realised she could pull it off.
LikeLike
I rewatched Angel Face a while back when I picked up the new Blu-ray (recommended by the way) and Jean Simmons’ work in it is as remarkable as ever. It’s not a typical femme fatale role, more layered and nuanced than the term might suggest. I think Simmons was one of the great screen presences, a genuine beauty and a highly accomplished actress.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a great beauty. She was still beautiful in the Civil War series ‘North and South’ from the ’80s as Patrick Swayze’s mother. Great actress.
LikeLike
I remember watching that mini-series at the time but I recall little about it now. Of her later career parts, I thought it was rather neat that she played Miss Haversham in the late 80s TV version of Great Expectations.
LikeLike
I agree. While I enjoy “femme fatale as evil spider woman” performances it’s those slightly more ambiguous femme fatale performances that I like best. The ones where you’re not sure whether to condemn her as evil or see her as perhaps an innocent unaware of the harm she does, or even partially a victim.
I guess that’s how I like my film noir in general – with the ambiguity ratcheted up as far as possible.
LikeLike
Just watched ‘Kit Carson’ from 1940 with Dana Andrews as John C. Fremont. What a hoot! No real history but great action, Ward Bond with a boomerang and Andrews looking very young. I liked it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I’ve seen that too, online I think as there are usually good quality prints of it available for viewing. There’s nothing remotely serious about the movie but it is good fun and passes the time nicely.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, and interesting to see Monument valley used in the film also.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It seems it was no coincidence that Producer Edward Small brought in veteran George B. Seitz to Direct the film. After all Seitz Directed the first film, THE VANISHING AMERICAN (1925), using the backdrop of Monument Valley.
LikeLike
Director George B. Seitz certainly got the most out of all the participants involved. What stood out for me, was Jon Hall, in the title role, the screenplay & catchy dialogue by George Bruce and the big scale cinematography.
LikeLike
Great review š I too think that Human Desire is an underrated film from Fritz Lang’s American period. I truly believe that it is every bit as great as The Big Heat and the rest of his work from this period. Speaking of Emile Zola, it has been said that legendary Austrian-American director Erich von Stroheim saw his work as an influence on his 1924 silent masterpiece Greed š
LikeLike
I wonder if The Big Heat is a bit more highly regarded due to its feeling more like a conventional thriller?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good point. There’s a lot more to The Big Heat. It’s a subtle movie that repays multiple watches. There’s plenty to think about. But it can be enjoyed purely as a gripping thriller.
It’s Lang pulling off the difficult trick of making a very commercial movie that is also intelligent and thought-provoking.
LikeLike
How is it not a conventional thriller?
LikeLike
It can of course be watched as a conventional thriller and works fine as such – the “cops and robbers’ aspect lends it that air in a way that doesn’t happen with a melodrama such as Human Desire. However, there is a good deal doing on in The Big Heat which is less conventional, the matter of fact view of institutional corruption, of violence, the fact Bannion behaves like a borderline psychopath for a good part of the running time, and so on . Now many of these elements have become standard issue for thrillers over time, but there’s a real sourness about the direction and make up of society, even family itself, that wasn’t to be found everywhere at the time.
LikeLike
I will have to run it again with all that in mind. Thank you =.
LikeLike
Lang said that The Big Heat was about the effects that violence has on society. Bannion has been touched by violence and it has damaged him. He’s lost just a little of his humanity. Some of the violence has rubbed off on him. Lang doesn’t labour the point but it’s there. And Glenn Ford doesn’t labour the point in his performance, but it’s there.
LikeLike
You could kind of see Scarlet Street (which I believe was also a box office success) in a similar light. On one level it’s a familiar “poor innocent schmuck nice guy gets tempted by wicked sexy bad girl” story which the public always likes.
On another level it deals with Lang’s obsession with free will and redemption. If you do something bad saying “that wicked woman drove me to it” doesn’t get you off the hook. You still have a choice. And Lang was adamant that Chris Cross can choose redemption.
Lang was quite good at making movies that worked on more than one level.
LikeLike
Scarlet Street is an extraordinarily pessimistic piece of work, maybe Lang’s most pessimistic, so much so that I find I really need to be in the right mood to watch it.
All good filmmaking operates on multiple levels, and should be capable of drawing varied responses from the viewer at different times depending on the circumstances.
LikeLike
All good filmmaking operates on multiple levels
I often wonder how much of the audience is capable of appreciating a movie that works on multiple levels. My gut feeling is that audiences from the 60s to the 90s were a lot more sophisticated than audiences today. But I have no idea about audiences in the 30s, 40s and 50s.
LikeLike
They went with the narrative in the past. Today, there is nothing that interests me, not in the public nor on the screen.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I could still get interested in movies up until the 90s but it seemed like around 2002 contemporary movies just failed to interest me any longer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have that same feeling Colin as much as I love The Big Heat š
LikeLike
Yes, I mean I’m not being critical of it or anything as I’m a great fan of the film, but it does seem like it might be more accessible overall, slotting more easily into a more clearly defined category.
LikeLiked by 1 person