blanche-2 "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. A friend of his, Jean (Richard Hart) comes to see her. 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. He felt he just had to meet her. He breaks the news to her that Paul is dead. Yeah, and guess what.First of all, you can see this plot coming a mile away. Secondly, though we hear about this great love that Paul and Marise have, we don't see any of it in flashbacks, just their wedding. 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. Sadly he died four years later, at the age of 35, which is awful. I would say he was completely misdirected in this. The character of Jean (my opinion only) should have been warm, sincere, helpful, without a hint of pushiness so that he can inculcate himself into Marise's life. Robert Mitchum ultimately doesn't have much to do. 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. Cukor and Garson fought, and Cukor left the film.For all that, the film is quite atmospheric, with enough dry ice creating fog that you almost couldn't see anyone.Greer Garson is good given the material.If you're a fan of hers, watch this film; if not, skip it.

gamay9 When film critics rate the best actors they fail to realize that the quality of film making has (in many cases) improved as time passes. Modern actors are far superior, on the whole, to those from the 40's and 50's. Perhaps casting personnel didn't have many actors who could fake a foreign accent back then.Greer Garson (a Frenchwoman) is English. Robert Mitchum and Richard Hart (Frenchmen) are American. That is apparent by their accents. If Gary Oldman, Dustin Hoffman or Robin Williams had been available.... (forget it - they would have been mis-cast). Couldn't they have cast French film stars? I'm a male Vietnam veteran who can appreciate a good love story, but this is soap opera tripe. Perhaps I've been hardened by dodging Molotov cocktails while working in a Stars and Stripes office in Saigon.I'm also a businessman and I was hoping we would learn that Paul got his fishing business back. If he wasn't really dead it all depends upon French law. With that in mind, one can easily see how seriously I took the film.

dbdumonteil Why didn't they transpose the action to the USA? That said,George Cukor's vision of Britanny is not this false:this is a place in France where religion plays a prominent part and Maryse feeling guilt and attending the Pardons ceremony make sense ;besides ,one of the supporting characters is a priest ,Maryse 's confidant (and confessor).He preaches a fatalistic moral,claiming that anyway Renaud was born a loser and it was meant to be ! "Desire me " is a story with an atmosphere of mystery ;in Cukor's filmography,it's close to "gaslight" "keeper of the flame" (a character who is not what he seems to be,just like in "desire")or " a woman's face ".And ,as Britanny is a French region the culture of which is full of legends ,it's not a bad choice after all;Paul is a male Rebecca whose presence can be felt everywhere ,on the shadow of a wall,in a tune played on the piano (it's an old French classic called "Vous Qui Passez Sans Me Voir" = you who pass by without seeing me),or in the boathouse .The ball ,on the other hand ,features music which doesn't sound Breton folk at all,in spite of the costumes.Like this?try these..." Les Louves" Luis Saslavsky "Carrefour" (Bernard,1938) remade as "Le Retour De Martin Guerre" (Vigne ,1983) remade as "Sommersby" (Amiel,1992)

Pat-54 Director George Cukor was so unhappy with his production of "Desire Me," that he insisted that his name be taken off the opening credits. It was the first film M-G-M had ever released without one. No happy memories about the filming for Greer Garson either. During the filming of one scene, which was by the ocean, a wave came up unexpectedly and swept the star out to sea. She nearly drowned!