Desire Me (1947)
Desire Me (1947), directed by Jack Conway (uncredited), George Cukor (uncredited), Mervyn Le Roy (uncredited), and Victor Saville (uncredited).
In this heavily melodramatic soap opera, when soldier Robert Mitchum fails to return from the war his buddy arrives to tell his wife that he was killed trying to escape from a prison camp. The buddy knows everything about wife Greer Garson and the village and he has become obsessed with her. She resists him at first but then softens. As you might expect, the husband lives and is on his way back.
Everyone is French but no one attempts an accent.
As you can see from the long directors list, this was one of those famously "troubled" productions. The film itself has no director listed at all in the credits. See more background at TCM: Desire Me.
It's a muddled screenplay and suffers from a multi-flashback structure. The beginning with true confessions at the doctor's office is really unfortunate, and unnecessary. Many rear projection shots.
Its good points:
A chance to see stars Mitchum and Garson together, although I wonder how it would have worked with Deborah Kerr or Joan Fontaine.
Some good photography by Joseph Ruttenberg, although many scenes seem excessively dim.
A good segment: when the buddy discovers the husband is still alive and is returning he enters a world of paranoia, seeing ghosts in the shadows.
Another one: the two stalk and call to each other in the fog.
Available on DVD from Warner Archive. Soft and dark image.
