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Human Desire

A rarity on the screen … a RAW slice of life!

1954 · 1h 31m · Not Rated Drama, Romance
Directed by Fritz Lang

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Overview

Jeff Warren, a Korean War vet just returning to his railroad engineer's job, boards at the home of co-worker Alec Simmons and is charmed by Alec's beautiful daughter. He becomes attracted immediately to Vicki Buckley, the sultry wife of brutish railroad supervisor Carl Buckley, an alcoholic wife beater with a hair-trigger temper and penchant for explosive violence. Jeff becomes reluctantly drawn into a sordid affair by the compulsively seductive Vicki. After Buckley is fired for insubordination, he begs her to intercede on his behalf with John Owens, a rich and powerful businessman whose influence can get him reinstated.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
59%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Though the action pivots on blackmail and murder, the heart of the movie is a regular guy's struggle with the inner violence of sexual frenzy and the outer violence of war.

Richard Brody, New Yorker
Rotten

Fritz Lang, director, goes overboard in his effort to create mood. Long focusing on locomotive speeding and twisting on the rails is neither entertaining nor essential to the plot.

Variety Staff, Variety
Rotten

There isn't a single character in it for whom it builds up the slightest sympathy -- and there isn't a great deal else in it for which you're likely to have the least regard.

Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Fresh

Lang's version of Zola's La Bete Humaine is, like all his best '50s work, as cold, hard and steely grey as the railway tracks which here mark out the action.

Steve Jenkins, Time Out
Fresh

A gripping melodrama.

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

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