Friday, September 17, 2021 at 11:44:00 P.M. EDT
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Fritz Lang’s Human Desire (1954) with Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford and Edgar Buchanan.
Film Noir Guide: “Ford is a Korean War veteran who returns to his stateside job as a train engineer.
"He becomes involved with Grahame, the wife of the railroad company's assistant train master (Crawford), after her jealous husband commits a vicious murder. Desperate to retrieve from Crawford an incriminating letter that can connect her to the killing, Grahame tries to convince Ford to murder him.
"Buchanan (TV’s Judge Roy Bean) plays Ford’s friend and co-worker.
"A tawdry remake of Jean Renoir’s provocative La Bete Humaine, which starred Simone Signoret, Human Desire is notable mainly for Grahame’s solid performance as the abused wife.”
David in TN: A mediocre film by Lang, in my opinion.
N.S.: Most of the movies Lang made in America were mediocre. Without his Nazi wife and collaborator, Thea von Harbou (1888-1954), the Jew Fritz Lang was just half a man.
Note that Edgar Buchanan played pivotal supporting roles in two Top 100 masterpieces: Shane (1953) and Ride the High Country (1962).
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TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 am ET is William J. Hole's Hell Bound (1957) with John Russell, June Blair, Stuart Whitman, Margo Woode, George Mather, Stanley Adams, Frank Fenton.
Film Noir Guide: "Russell (TV's The Lawman) portrays a particularly vile criminal mastermind who plots the theft of a ship's supply of war surplus narcotics, which he hopes grateful drug suppliers will turn into 'big, white, fluffy, happy clouds.' His convoluted scheme involves his lover (Woode), a fake shipwreck victim (Mather), a diabetic public health officer (Adams), a phony nurse (Blair), and an innocent intern/ambulance driver (Whitman). Hoping to obtain funding for his outrageous plan, Russell films a documentary explaining how it will be played out and presents it to a mobster (Fenton), who agrees to back him. Unknown to Russell, Mather is a hopelessly addicted druggie, and Adams experiences a drastic improvement in his diabetic condition, a necessary ingredient for the success of the plan. Even worse, Blair, who's also Fenton's moll, falls for Whitman while accompanying him on his ambulance calls. Needless to say, this well-thought heist turns into a film noir nightmare."
This a film that in 1957 would be half of a double feature. I haven't seen it, nice for Eddie to show one rarely on TV.
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