Scanialara
You won't be disappointed!
Gutsycurene
Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.
Dana
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
MartinHafer
Lonnie (Ken Scott) just got out of prison for vehicular homicide. The problem is that through the course of the movie you realize that he didn't do it but took the rap for his girlfriend, Melinda (Martha Hyer). But when Lonnie gets into town, he learns that Melinda is married and she didn't wait for him! Nice girl, huh? Well, through the course of the film you come to realize that she's actually much, much worse!This film definitely pushed the envelope back in 1960...deliberately so. The fim begins with a scene where you THINK you see someone skinny dipping and the story is filled with sleazy elements and some cursing as well as the word 'rape'....somewhat tame by modern standards but certainly not for 1960!So is it worth seeing? Well, the acting quality is very good and it's a well made film. Whether or not you will like it will depend a lot on whether or not you like sleazy soap operas. I enjoyed it.
By the way, this film has some very strange billing. Although Kent Scott clearly plays the leading character in the film, he gets fourth billing. And, although Joan Bennett received third billing, she's barely in the film.
mark.waltz
There should be a special genre name for dramas focusing on the so-called sweet southern life. Outside of the mint juleps, magnolia blossoms and happy servants being paid for serving their overly charming employers, there's the memory of slavery, the desire for power and the selfish Belle's that would gladly kill to get the man they want and the disillusioned or insane family matriarch hanging into a dream that never came true. The stories are sprawling and the characters colorful, but unfortunately, this black and white wide screen film is as dusty and depressing as the characters involved in the clichéd story.Sharecropper's son Ken Scott has been released from a chain gang for an accidental death that he was not responsible for. Returning home, he finds out that the rich girl he loves (Martha Hyer) is engaged to marry doctor Brett Halsey. Her powerful father (Raymond Burr) has a hankering to be governor of Louisiana and wants no scandal shaking things up, so Scott's presence is quite unwelcome. Then, there's Joan Bennett as his seemingly mentally unhinged wife, clinging onto the belief that a dead son is alive. Knowledge of past scandals involving Burr's family has given Scott's father (Douglas Fowley in a part that Walter Brennan would have played 20 years before) an upper hand on retaining his land, so there's plenty of intrigue to be dealt with during the film's 100 minutes.For the first 20 minutes of the film ("the grabber"), pretty much nothing of interest happens other than a generic introduction to the younger characters. It's obvious that Hyer is a spoiled, selfish modern belle, and that doesn't make her at all a leading character to sympathize with. Burr is the typical powerful blowhard, and while he has the charm that hides a nasty streak, he lacks the commanding southern presence that actors like Burl Ives and Ed Begley had. The wasted Joan Bennett is simply there for the big reveal and while still very attractive, lacks the moments in the script to really build to the big ball drop. Scott is definite eye candy but lacks the charisma of other young rebels with causes. This is one of those letdowns that seemed to have promise, but is basically a large steak where the juicy bits seem surrounded by fat. Trim that fat, and you end up with dog scraps.
David (Handlinghandel)
Heavy-breathing and faux-Southern, though shot, we are told at the end, in authentic Louisiana locations. We have incest here, folks, or hints of it. (That would be patriarch Raymond Burr and his daughter Martha Hyer.) We have nymphomania (Hyer.) We have boozing and fighting.We have insanity in the form of Burrr's wife, played by Joan Bennett. (She looks great here -- much better than a decade earlier in the very different and far better "Father of the Bride.) The movie opens with a birthday party for her little boy. The problem is, the party is taking place at his grave. He's been dead six years or so.The man sent up for killing him while driving drunk is Hyer's ex-boyfriend. She's married now -- and to a doctor, no less.It isn't believable. But it's never dull. And there's much to be said for an entertaining movie, no matter how silly it is at its core.
blanche-2
Released in 1960, Desire in the Dust looks to have been a B movie, featuring a lot of TV actors and future TV actors: Raymond Burr, Anne Helm, Jack Ging, Edward Binns, Martha Hyer, and Brett Halsey. The film also looks to be attempting to cash in on the success of those southern Big Daddy dramas like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Long Hot Summer.The Big Daddy in this one is Raymond Burr, who tightly controls a family that includes his off-her-rocker wife, played by Joan Bennett, stunningly beautiful daughter Hyer, her wimpy doctor husband, Brett Halsey, and son, Jack Ging. Bennnett never recovered from the death of a young son who was hit by a car six years earlier; Ging is love with the white trash daughter of the man who supposedly ran him over.Of course, there's a lot more to the story than that and in 102 minutes, this film stuffs it all in, including more cigarettes and alcohol than one would see in ten films put together. There are also a lot of bullets, dust, and histrionics.All in all, it's a slow go, with a couple of interesting segments and decent acting.
