Desire Me (1947)

Set in France shortly after the end of WWII, a widow (Greer Garson) shares her grief with the soldier (Richard Hart) who saw her husband (Robert Mitchum) killed trying to escape from a German prisoner of war camp. Slowly, her grief gives way to love for her husband's friend. What she doesn't know is that her husband is, in fact, alive. Based on the play KARL AND ANNA by Leonhard Frank and directed by ..... well, this is that rare film that was released without a credited director. It was a troubled production and reputedly among its many directors: George Cukor (MY FAIR LADY), Mervyn LeRoy (QUO VADIS), Victor Saville (GREEN DOLPHIN STREET) and Jack Conway (THE HUCKSTERS). The plot itself is solid but its execution is haphazard. The film can't seem to make up its mind whether it's a romance, a melodrama or a thriller so it ends up being nothing. I would have loved to see what Hitchcock could have done with the material. There's not enough Mitchum in the film, the movie could have used more of his star power to compensate for Hart's unappealing presence. With Cecil Humphreys and in a rare sympathetic part, George Zucco as a country priest.