Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
World War II was an intriguing time in history. Time will never forget the sacrifices of the many involved, but what often slips through the cracks of time and what we remember of that era is how fragmented some of the people who came back from the war actually were. I was reminded of this yet again by watching Desire Me, a black-and-white Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) drama from 1947, now on DVD courtesy of the Warner Archive Collection.
Starring Robert Mitchum, Greer Garson and Richard Hart, the film’s trailer was enough to hook me – “The primitive clash of savage emotions with the raging sea as the eerie setting … and a woman’s heart as the fatal prize!” Is there a more fascinating premise for a film than that? I think not. You can almost picture that in your mind’s eye, can’t you? The setting is Brittany, a coastal region in France during the 1940s, and even in black and white, it is still remarkably picturesque.
The film begins with Marise Aubert (Garson) paying a visit to her doctor. She’s convinced something is wrong with her and that she’s dying. However, the doctor suggests that nothing is physically wrong with her and that the problem must be all inside her mind. So, she begins to tell her story. Her husband Paul (Mitchum) was a fisherman with his own small, albeit successful, business before World War II. Paul went off to fight for his country and was captured by the Germans. While attempting to escape from the prison camp, Paul is shot but his friend Jean Renaud (Hart) escapes and goes on to relay the news of his death to his widow, whom he has fallen in love with based on Paul’s descriptions of her.
The flashbacks of Paul telling Jean how much he loves his wife, and why, struck a nerve within me. She’s so trusting of people that she often forgets to lock the door, but that makes him love her all the more. He shows Jean a photograph of her that he keeps in his pocket, explaining how her hair, her skin, everything about her is beautiful. He describes his cozy fisherman’s cottage by the sea full of pleasant things (“some hers, some mine, but she promised me she wouldn’t change a thing until my return”) in such amazingly vivid sensory details that Jean begins to imagine it as if it were his own. Somewhere along the way in that prison camp, it’s as if Paul’s memories of his life by the sea with Marise have merged with Jean’s own creating this warped reality inside his mind. Marise gives both men something to cling to – a reason to go on living and to keep sane during their years of imprisonment. She represents hope eternal and a brighter future after the war is over.
At first it was easy for me to dismiss Jean showing up as creepy. tweet
Although Marise was already informed of Paul’s death, she goes on clinging to the hope that he is somehow still alive and will someday return to her. It isn’t until Jean shows up on her doorstep with his tale that she begins to finally accept it. At first it was easy for me to dismiss Jean showing up and telling her all about her life and how fervently he loves her because he saw her through her husband’s eyes and words as being creepy, but then I had an epiphany. I’ve thankfully never gone away to war. I’ve never left my home, my country, my love to fight for a cause bigger than myself. I’ve never had to hold onto a photograph of my beloved while in the trenches or the hells of a prison camp, ensconced in my happier memories of my life before the war, all the while praying for my safe return home and wondering if any of the deities above will actually heed my prayers.
Marise allows Jean to stay with her temporarily because she knows he has no other place to go and she trusts him as she assumes her husband must have trusted him. She understands him because she is just as broken and displaced feeling as he is. War takes an ugly toll on the human spirit. She spends the night grieving – I imagine that’s how she has spent many a sleepless night since first receiving the news of her husband’s death. While she’s lying there, we catch glimpses of more blissful times in her life – her wedding and a day spent together on a boat with Mitchum looking as devilishly handsome as ever. However, we also see flashbacks of Jean’s that are more disturbing. We see Jean remembering the night of the escape and Paul crying out to him for help while he slithers away like a snake in the grass.
Jean tells Marise that he doesn’t want to share another man’s life anymore. He wants to know what it’s like to have a home and a woman to call his own. Marise confesses her feelings of loneliness and wanting to feel useful in the world again. She goes about the town looking more cheerful as she buys her groceries, including a whole loaf of bread (instead of her usual half – who’s going to eat the other half? gossip the befuddled townsfolk behind her back, much to my amusement). Jean restores Marise’s joie de vivre! However, nothing gold can stay. We find out that not only is Paul still alive, but Jean knows it. He conceals a letter from Paul to Marise and begins urging her to run away with him so they can start a new life together. Just before they can however, Paul makes his hero’s return home.
The trailer also teases, “Can a woman love two men completely?” My own womanly instincts and heart tell me the answer to this has to be “no.” Who will get the girl? The two men duel over Marise in an eerie, foggy scene over the seaside cliffs that’s not to be missed. Perhaps the moral of the story is the next time you covet another man’s life and think to take it as your own, you’d better be sure he’s dead. I understand that reports during the war were often erroneous, but I had never stopped to consider what would happen if a widow had moved on with her life only to discover that her husband wasn’t dead.
Desire Me represents a forgotten piece of film history. tweet
Desire Me represents an awful piece of forgotten history – and film history if you read the trivia behind it. There’s no director’s credit because several directors attempted to work on it and disliked it so much that they quit. It was supposed to star Robert Montgomery in the Richard Hart role, but he also left the project before its completion. After being swept up by an ocean wave during filming, Garson sustained injuries to her back that would haunt her for years. Hart died tragically a few years later in 1951, of a sudden coronary occlusion (likely caused by alcoholism). Mitchum famously credited this film as beginning his disillusionment with Hollywood because of an absurd amount of takes to complete a scene. It’s also believed to be a dark turning point in MGM’s history, for Louis B. Mayer was sacked by his studio shortly thereafter. It’s not the best film I’ve ever seen, but I don’t understand why it isn’t regarded a little more highly. It has enough pent-up angst and raw, swirling emotions that I enjoyed it overall. I’m grateful that it was preserved. You should give it a chance yourself, if you so desire.
Desire Me has a running time of 1 hour 31 minutes and is not rated.
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I concur with your well considered assessment of the film. I was surprised at the negative reaction to the film as I thought the cinematography is powerful and well done. Exquisitely done in certain sequences. Think about the incredible recreation of a French town on the MGM backlot. Incredible. The performances are excellent and there is a nerve wracking tension as we realize the protagonist is unseemly, a man of poor moral character, acting out of his own selfish impulses and taking advantage of a woman who is in a devastated emotional situation. There are many complex moral issues going on in the film that stay with you and it has a haunting quality.