Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Broderick Crawford star in Fritz Lang’s “Human Desire”

Human Desire (1954) is an American film noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Broderick Crawford. Peggy Maley, Kathleen Case, and Edgar Buchanan round out the supporting cast.

Korean War veteran Jeff Warren (Ford) is a train engineer for the Central National Railroad. Jeff’s involvement with Vicki Buckley (Grahame) puts him in peril with Vicki’s sadistic husband Carl (Crawford).

Will Jeff and Vicki be able to overcome the evil shadow of Carl Buckley?

Gloria Grahame and Glenn Ford

Fritz Lang (1890 – 1976) was an Austrian-German-American director. Lang is the director of the silent film classic Metropolis (1927). After serving in World War I, Lang worked as an actor in the theater and then worked as a writer at Decla Film in Berlin. Lang’s first talking picture was M (1931) a story about a child murderer. Due to his growing renown, Joseph Goebbels offered him the position of head of the German film studio UFA in 1933. Lang emigrated to Paris and then to the United States in 1936. Lang worked for all the major studios, making twenty-three feature films in the United States. Some of Lang’s films include Scarlet Street (1945), The Big Heat (1953), and While the City Sleeps (1956).

Glenn Ford (1916 - 2006) was a Canadian-American actor who was one of the biggest box office draws for three decades. Ford acted on stage in California before he signed a contract with Columbia Pictures. He appeared in mostly B movies until The Lady in Question (1940), the first time he was paired with fellow Columbia contract player, Rita Hayworth. After serving in the Coast Guard during World War II, Ford’s career took off. He and Hayworth had a huge hit with Gilda (1946) and A Stolen Life (1946) with Bette Davis. Ford came into his own in the 1950s with films like Blackboard Jungle (1955), Interrupted Melody (1955) with Eleanor Parker, Jubal (1956), and The Fastest Gun Alive (1956) with Jeanne Crain, all box office successes. By the end of the decade, Ford was one of the biggest stars in the world. Ford continued making movies in the 1960s but his films were more uneven than in the previous decade. However, he had hits with Experiment in Terror (1962) and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father  (1963). In 1978, he played Clark Kent’s adoptive father in Superman (1978). His last film role was Raw Nerve (1991).

Gloria Grahame (1923 – 1981) was an American actress. She began her career on the stage and then went to Hollywood in 1944 where she was under contract to M-G-M. At M-G-M, they didn’t know what to do with Grahame. She was loaned out to play Violet Bick in It’s a Wonderful Life, earning good notices but M-G-M decided to sell her contract to RKO. She played minor and secondary roles in several film noirs, but her career didn’t gain any traction at that studio. She had good roles in Sudden Fear (1952) and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Bad and the  Beautiful (1952). Grahame’s performance in that film lasted just over nine minutes. She was the Elephant Girl, performing her stunts, in Cecil B. De Mille’s The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). Other films include Not as a Stranger (1955) and Oklahoma! (1955) where she played Ado Annie, a change of pace from her typical femme fatale roles. Grahame died of cancer at the age of 57.

Broderick Crawford (1911 – 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor. Born in Philadelphia to a show business family, Crawford acted with his parents on stage. As an adult, he won acclaim as Lenny in the original Broadway production of Of Mice and Men in 1937. He later moved to Hollywood and began acting in small roles and bit parts throughout the 1940s. He finally got his chance at stardom in All the King’s Men (1949), the film version of Robert Penn Warren’s award-winning novel. The film was a big hit and Crawford won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Willie Stark. Now a star, Crawford starred in more prestigious productions including Born Yesterday (1950) receiving top-billing over co-stars Judy Holiday and William Holden. Crawford became a television icon as Dan Matthews in the police dram Highway Patrol (1955 – 1959.) 

Human Desire trivia

• Fritz Lang didn’t like the title. He thought it was redundant. “What other desire is there?”
• Lang wanted Marlon Brando to play the role of Jeff. Brando thought Lang had lost his way and called the screenplay “crap.”
• Rita Hayworth was originally scheduled to co-star with Ford but she was tied up in court with divorce proceedings.
• Olivia de Havilland and Jennifer Jones were mentioned as possible leads.
• Ford and Broderick Crawford worked together in Convicted (1950) and The Fastest Gun Alive (1956).

Click HERE to watch the film on YouTube.

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Discussion questions

1. If you saw The Big Heat (1953) also starring Ford and Graham, which do you think is the better film?
2. Do you think Vicki loved Jeff or was she just using him to get rid of her husband?
3. Some critics have called Human Desire a low-rent Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Do you agree with that criticism?
4. Ford and Grahame were paired again because of their previous success in The Big Heat. Do you think their on-screen chemistry is as good in this film?
5. How much of the action is based on fate and the characters' choices?
6. Was the ending a surprise to you? Was it satisfying?
7. Does this film qualify as a film noir in your opinion? Yes or no? Why?