Desire Me

Plot synopsis:
While trying to escape a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, Paul Aubert is shot, but his friend Jean Renaud manages to get away safely. Jean leaves him for dead and travels to the village of Paul's beloved wife, Marise.
Marise is shocked to discover that Jean knows practically everything about her, Paul having confided in his friend many times in the camp. Jean has fallen in love with her from these stories, but when he makes romantic advances, Marise orders him to leave.
Paul is not dead. He writes a letter to Marise, explaining that he is about to be released from a hospital so he can return to her. Jean intercepts the letter and keeps it from Marise. In time, a relationship between them grows. Marise remains uncertain whether she is being untrue to her husband, who suddenly returns to the village.
Marise is ecstatic to have him back, but confesses her relationship with Jean. Paul confronts his friend over the betrayal and Jean pulls a gun on him. They struggle, and Jean is killed in a fall from a cliff.

Tags: romantic, melodrama

Review:
The film is set in postwar Brittany and it has to do with Richard Hart arriving in a small Breton fishing village.
He's decided to look up Greer Garson who's the widow of a former buddy Robert Mitchum from a POW camp.
He woos and wins her and then Mitchum shows up.I have to say that Mitchum, Garson, and Hart are about as convincingly French as Barry Fitzgerald.
In typical Mitchum fashion for what he felt was Garson's condescending ways, he used to eat sandwiches with onions and roquefort cheese before their closeups.
That ain't a look of passion Garson's giving out with when you see this.Because Cukor got into a fight with Garson as opposed to Mitchum who was in on a pass from that inferior studio RKO, he quit the film.
It seems like the making of the movie was beset by hardship, and left a bad taste in the mouth of a lot of the cast and crew, but I see no reason that it should leave a bad taste in our mouths.
While the story is on the surface a love triangle, there are complexities among the characters, and in their relationships with each other, that make the film compelling in spite of being typical Hollywood romance.
Frenchwoman Greer Garson (as Marise) tells her psychiatrist about her complicated relationship with two men.
In flashback, her story begins (mostly) with the arrival of handsome Richard Hart (as Jean) at her coastal cottage, in Normandy.
Mr. Hart has some bad news and some good news for Ms. Garson.The bad news is that he informs her that handsome husband Robert Mitchum (as Paul) has been killed by Nazis.
The good news is that he, Hart, has fallen in love with Garson, through the stories told by buddy Mitchum.
Joseph Ruttenberg photographs Garson and the coast with love.**** Desire Me (10/31/47) George Cukor ~ Greer Garson, Richard Hart, Robert Mitchum.
They show two soldier's in the war, one being Richard Hart(Jean Renaud),"Green Dolphin Street",'47 and Robert Mitchem,(Paul Aubert),"Cape Fear",'91, Paul is married to Marise Aubert and Jean Renaud is a very close friend.
Certainly this has to be ranked as one of the most forgettable films GREER GARSON and ROBERT MITCHUM ever participated in, a film that went from bad to worse once it was handed over from one director to another at least three times.In the end, nobody wanted to take credit for it and it's easy to see why there is no "Directed by" credit on the screen.
Not only did the directors quit, but ROBERT MONTGOMERY began filming in the Richard Hart role until he dropped out and was replaced.The only redeeming feature of the film is the handsome seaside setting and house that Garson lives in, until a stranger comes along (RICHARD HART) to inform her that her husband (MITCHUM) is dead and that he was Mitch's best friend during World War II.
Garson is soon offering Hart shelter and their relationship seems to be heading toward a romantic involvement when the very much alive Mitchum returns to town, seeking to resume his former life.Actually, these are the ingredients for a potentially strong enough story--so one has to wonder why the film turned out so disastrously.
First reason-an interesting story about a man returning from the war and trying to take over his dead friend's wife and life!
Second reason-excellent acting by the entire cast of Greer Garson, Richard Hart, Robert Mitchum, George Zucco, Morris Ankrum, and Cecil Humphreys!
This French film was later remade in England in 1940 as "Dead Man's Shoes".
The same story inspired Pirandello's "As You Desire Me", set in Italy, in the late 20's, which became a Greta Garbo vehicle in the 30's, as well as the novel "The Wife of Martin Guerre" by American writer Janet Lewis (1941), a story set in France in the Middle Ages, which became the French film "The Return of Martin Guerre" (Daniel Vigne, 1982), which was of course remade as a Hollywood film starring Richard Gere, "Sommersby" (Jon Amiel, 1993) and set after the US Civil War. The same Italian story also inspired Edward Wool's 1935 play "Libel!" (filmed in 1959 in England), which has several similarities with the classic film "Random Harvest" (1942).As if the story was not tired enough, the big mistake was to transpose a German play about the aftermath of the First World War in a post-WWII French Brittany setting - filmed on the back lot - that just doesn't gel.
Imagining Robert Mitchum and Greer Garson as a French fisherman and his wife is simply an exercise quite beyond anyone's powers of self-deception.The end result is a cumbersome imitation of European simplicity with misfiring Hollywood production values, an embarrassingly stodgy melodrama that tries very hard to be a thoughtful little art film.
"Desire Me" from 1947 was a troubled film, with everyone hating everyone else, and George Cukor having his name removed from the credits.
If only some of that passion had been on the screen, we might have a movie to talk about.As it is, "Desire Me" is the old story of a French woman, Marise (Greer Garson) who doesn't know if her husband, last heard of in a work camp, is dead or alive.
Her husband Paul (Robert Mitchum) was his friend at the camp, and talked about Marise incessantly.
Jean knows all about her, and he was kept alive by Paul's stories.
Third, Jean is such an obvious phony, determined to push his way into her house and life, that it's ridiculous.The name Richard Hart didn't conjure up much for me, and after seeing him in this, I know why.
He spent most of his time eating sandwiches with onion and Roquefort when he had scenes with Greer Garson, whom he thought was stuck-up.
Robert Mitchum and Richard Hart (Frenchmen) are American.
"Desire Me" is a mess of a film.
And the stars have absolutely no chemistry.But this is supposed to be a love story about undeniable passions between a widow who steadfastly grieves her husband and a man who claims to have known him when he was alive.
As has been noted elsewhere, during the filming of "Desire Me," Ms. Garson and Richard Hart were swept into the sea by a wave along the rocky coast of California.
All this for a misfire of a film.If not for the luminous presence of Greer Garson, this movie wouldn't be worth anyone's time.
Considering the cast and director (George Cukor, who removed his name from the credits before the film's release) it's a wonder how it turned out so relatively poor.
{SPOILERS AHEAD} The outline of the plot is fine: Paul (Robert Mitchum) is imprisoned during WW-II in a German POW camp.
He spends his time telling a fellow prisoner, Jean (Hart), details about his life with his wife, Marise (Garson).
He goes to Paul's home he has come to know so well and tries to claim Marise, who has been faithfully waiting for Paul for several years, as his own--in spite of the fact that he knows (or at least strongly suspects) that Paul is actually still alive.
Crucial to the story is the devotion Marise and Paul have toward each other.Unfortunately, this supposed great love is spoken of, but never dramatized.
An even bigger failing is how the relationship between Marise and Jean plays out.
He immediately begins to pressure her to form a relationship with him--this in spite of the fact that until he tells her that he saw Paul die, Marise still believed him to be alive.
For this bit of absurdity to work, all one would need do is, first, provide more background (lots more background) to the relationship between Marise and Paul.
These two changes alone might have turned the movie into a classic--IF Ms. Garson and Mr. Mitchum could have developed some chemistry between them.
Still, for all its considerable faults, I give the film a 5 out of 10 on the basis of the great Greer Garson's presence, some great cinematography and an interesting, if poorly realized, premise.
(There are Spoilers) Strange to say the least this movie is known more for it's behind the camera's action then the movie itself with Greer Garson almost drowning when she was suddenly gobbled up by an ocean wave during filming.
Robert Mitchum so turned off by the studio big-wigs micro managing , in a movie where no one wanted to take any credit for directing it, that it more then helped him developed his lifelong resentment for the suits that run Hollywood with a scene.
The director had Greer Garson just saying one word "No", that took no less then 125 takes, which had Mitchum just about call it quits, to being a big time Hollywood movie star, and go back to driving a truck.We see Marise Aubert, Greer Garson, in Dr. Leciair's, Cecil Humphreys, office at the beginning of the movie "Desire Me" very upset about her health and well being even though Dr. Leciair can find nothing wrong with her of the psychical nature.
The movie then goes into a long flashback were we see just what brought poor Marise into this depressive frame of mind.Marise husband Paul, Robert Mitchum, had been in a German POW camp since the spring of 1940 and after carrying a torch for Paul all these years, and hoping to see him after the war is over, she get's the sad news that he was killed by the Germans while trying to escape.
It's then when this drifter Jean Renavd, Richard Hart, drops into her, and Paul's, large seafront house in Brittany.
Jean starts by telling a cock and bull story to the confused and befuddled Marise about how he and Paul were the best of friends, as POW's, in the German prison camp.
All this hogwash from Jean has Marise finally give up any hope for Paul ever coming back and with the sneaky Jean using every trick in the book to get Marise to let him stay in her home, rent-free, she quirky fell under his spell.Living it up and having the best of both worlds as Paul's replacement in being Marise's new boyfriend and with the prospect of taking over Paul's very lucrative fishing business Jean, who disliked working with a passion, can now make a very good living for himself by having others work for him not the other, God forbid, way around.
There's also the fact that Marise is an excellent cook where Jean, instead of eating in flop houses and soup kitchens, can now have an home cooked meal of shrimp and oysters, his favorite dish, almost every day and night of the week.Thinking that this good deal that he fell into, living like a king in Marise's place, will never end Jean gets the shock of his life when he intercepts a letter, from the nosy mailman Alex( David Hoffman), from non other then Paul himself.
In the letter Paul tells Marise that he's alive and well and will be back home very soon to continue his happily married life with her!
Jaen not only took Paul's wife and business away from him while he was recovering in a French Military Hospital but it was the double-crossing Jaen himself who set up Paul, who he thought was dead, to get shot by the Germans back in the POW camp!The movie gets really dopey with Jean instead of checking out knowing that the sh*t is going to hit the fan, as soon Paul shows up in town, tries to get the unsuspecting Marise to sell the house and Paul's fish business.
When Paul finds out what some rotten and back-stabbing rat Jean did by taking away his wife Marise and fishing business his good natured demeanor quickly changes.
Paul instead takes out his hatred and frustrations on the innocent as the morning snow Marise who by now is so confused and bewildered that she's just about had it with the whole business of missing and dead husbands and con artists boyfriends!
The ending with Marise coming back to the present, from the over an hour long flashback, is about the best thing to happen in "Desire Me" by knowing that the film is just about over and with that so is the pain and suffering of those still left watching it..
Greer Garson always seemed to be perfectly at ease in films with a World War 11 theme.
In this 1947 film, it's post-world war 11 and Garson plays the widow of a Brittany fisherman, the latter having been reported to her as dead.Suddenly, Richard Hart shows up.
He was with Robert Mitchum, her husband in the film, in a prisoner camp.
Hart is soon able to win Garson's heart by his knowledge of her and the house she shared with Mitchum.Unknown to all, Mitchum survived.
After Hart's tragic ending, Garson feels remorse in the fact that she had betrayed Mitchum's love.Garson has her emotional moments and Mitchum is effective, really in a supporting role, as her husband.
It's hard to imagine Robert Mitchum as being a man living in Normandy, but he and Greer Garson both star in "Desire Me"--along with Richard Hart.The film begins shortly after WWII.
Garson has been living alone since the war began--her husband (Mitchum) in a German concentration camp.
A man arrives (Hart) who tells Garson that he was Mitchum's friend and saw him die while trying to escape--and he knows so many, many details about her that his story about being Mitchum's best friend made sense.A bit later in the film, things began to stop making sense.
While Garson had fallen in love with Hart, he proved to be very moody and unpredictable--so much so that it makes you wonder how Garson would want to be with this guy.
Some of this was done because it fit in with the plot--some of it was due to sloppy writing.Eventually, Hart gets Garson to agree to sell her husband's old business and move to Paris with him.
However, in true Hollywood fashion, Mitchum arrives in town--and it's obvious Hart is a liar and cheat.
This leads to a showdown between the two men--and Hart seems quite willing to kill his 'old friend'.While this film has some interesting moments and the romance between Garson and Hart is nice to watch (at least at first), the film is far-fetched and a bit confusing.
The part that had me shaking my head was Garson's reaction to Mitchum's return--behaving like a woman guilty of something.
So I won't recount all of the things he brings up, but just add a bit.I think the issue that bothered me most about the film is that in the early scenes it is just "creepy".
"Desire Me"...it gets the film off to such a bad start.
And then this man from the POW camp shows up and tries to take the place of Garson's supposedly dead husband.
Of course you have a pretty good idea where this is going -- that Garson's husband (played by Robert Mitchum) isn't dead at all.
Fortunately, as the film progresses it gets less creepy, and more the story of a man who is desperate.
The supposedly dead husband doesn't show up until the final third of the film, so if you're a Mitchum fan, you may feel disappointed.
Garson seems more Garson as the film progresses, and that helps, and her acting while telling Mitchum what's happened is as good as it gets in acting.
Richard Hart -- the intruder -- is an actor you're not likely to know.
He died of a heart attack at age 35, so his film career is short...but he is fairly good here after the creepy phase of the story.
Even though you may not know the name, he will be a familiar and prolific British character actor, and he plays his role well.So this is a film you have to stick with for a while, but if you do you will be rewarded.
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).
Garson for this film got two leading men, Quickly rising up the ranks after years of minor parts and sudden success, brooding Robert Mitchum was cast as one of her two leading men here, and the forgotten Richard Hart was cast in the other major male role.
It's a post war story about the turmoil that supposed widow Garson goes through when her husband's pal (Hart) shows up to help Garson deal with her grief.
Brief flashbacks to Garson marrying Mitchum follow to add confusing twists in the mix.
The theme SOUNDS like a nascent pop song, just waiting for the right words to make adolescents of 1947 swoon and weep.But the only sobs in the audience would come from the young girls, not the boys who would be grinding their teeth with impatience and wondering when something was going to happen.It's the end of the war and Greer Garson lives in a rather splendid house overlooking the French coast.
She's waiting for her husband, Robert Mitchum, to return from the German reprisal camp where he's supposedly being held.
He sits at the piano and begins to play Garson's and Mitchum's love song, called "Desire Me." It's not Mitchum though.
This guy we're watching now is an intruder, Richard Hart, a handsome young man with whom Mitchum shared all his memories of home while both were confined to the reprisal camp.Hart explains all this to Garson, and adds that he himself saw Mitchum shot to death while trying to escape.
Upon hearing this, Garson, who was mooning over Mitchum, thinking he was still alive, is nonplussed.
He returns home just in time to find that his wife is about to run away with Hart.