Fritz Lang's "Human Desire" Blu-ray - Gloria Grahame, Glenn Ford @KinoLorber
Added 2023-07-07 18:34:21 +0000 UTCBONUS CAPTURES:
Fritz Lang's "Human Desire" Blu-ray - Gloria Grahame, Glenn Ford @KinoLorber
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http://www.dvdbeaver.com/FILM/DVDReviews24/human_desire.htm
A startlingly dark, late film noir masterwork by director Fritz Lang, Human Desire reunites Lang with his hero Glenn Ford and femme fatale Gloria Grahame from the previous year's The Big Heat and the screenwriter of Lang's 1952 noir Clash by Night, Alfred Hayes. Like those two classics, Human Desire finds Lang casting a pitiless eye on all of the human weaknesses that define film noir: deception, infidelity, passion, and murder.
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In Fritz Lang's Human Desire - loose, audacious, Vicki Buckley (Gloria Grahame) has taken a few too many backhands from her husband - alcoholic, moral-less, Carl (Broderick Crawford.) His blackmail doesn't help the marriage. She's carefree with her abundant femininity using it to seduce the stable and handsome, returning Korean War veteran, Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford) encouraging him to 'do away' with her sluggard hubby. The prize? A wanton, grade-A, femme-fatale lover. Is it enough? Jeff intelligently rejects her with his sights re-set on wholesome gal-pal Ellen (Kathleen Case.) Loosely based on Émile Zola's 1890 novel La Bête humaine - Human Desire is filled with self-serving greed that permeates the character's motivations to varying degrees. Everybody wants something. Carl demands loyalty and booze, Vicki wants a new man to cater to her comforts, Jeff is overwhelmed by Vicki's enticing beauty and innocent Ellen is hopelessly smitten with Jeff. A couple of murders later - surrounded by a train yard milieu and we have Noir gold. Grahame and Ford near their peak desirable ardor, gruff Broderick always slovenly solid - all helmed by genre-master Fritz Lang's cynicism. A 'dark cinema' essential but unworthy of a Blu-ray double-dip.
