"A man died because of me."

pixrox1

So says Marise Aubert (Greer Garson), with a wistfulness that tacitly acknowledges she's still thousands of men short in this department, compared to Helen of Troy. Since the death in question takes place during an extended scene in a coastal fog which would do Sherlock Holmes or Jack the Ripper proud, DESIRE ME clearly is a lesser entry in the film noir sweepstakes. The framing device involves Marise chit-chatting with her medical doctor in a bunch of neo-Freudian mumbo jumbo. The best way to describe the true nature of her malaise is that she wanted to have her cake, and eat it too (and with the effects of weed already ravaging Robert Mitchum's visage as her war-lost-and-found-again husband Paul Aubert, it is no wonder she would hanker for the younger, more handsome Jean Renaud (played convincingly by Richard Hart). The only problem with Jean is that he's a transparent sociopath, only a tad less squirrelly than Norman Bates. Greer's Marise truly is stuck between a rock and a hard place (as Greer herself was during filming, thanks to a rogue Pacific wave).

score 7/10

pixrox1 20 March 2013

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2770120/