Garson stars as a woman so consumed with guilt that she visits a psychiatrist to try to understand why she cannot live with her husband. In flashback, we see her husband, Mitchum, go off to war. Garson is deeply in love with him and remains faithful to him, even after official word of his
death arrives. Months later, Hart appears on her doorstep. He was a close friend of Mitchum's in the prison camp in which they both were held. And they escaped together, but Mitchum was gunned down while making it possible for Hart to make good his getaway. Hart and Garson sense the deep
loneliness in each other; she allows him to stay, and they soon fall in love. Things go along smoothly until one day Hart is shocked to find a letter from Mitchum, who is still alive. He keeps the letter from Garson and encourages her to sell her home and business so that they can leave the area
and start a new life. But Mitchum shows up before they move, and Garson is struck with massive guilt over having betrayed her husband. Mitchum and Hart struggle near a cliff, and Hart tumbles over the edge and is killed. Mitchum's love for his wife is strong enough for him to forgive her and start
anew, but she is so ashamed that she cannot live with him. Back in the present, a psychiatrist encourages Garson to return to her husband.
Remade from the German film HOMECOMING (1928), DESIRE ME went through many stars (Hart was slated for the lead, then Robert Montgomery, and finally Mitchum) and directors (George Cukor began shooting, Mervyn LeRoy finished, neither wanted credit) before it was released after sitting in the MGM
vaults for 18 months. The resulting film is not awful, just muddled with an overly complex structure of flashbacks within flashbacks that tend to confuse the viewer. leave a comment
