One Desire (1955) User Reviews

No match for her wiles

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 9 December 2014]

In thinking over the title One Desire I've concluded it refers to the One Desire that Anne Baxter and Julie Adams have for Rock Hudson. Each wants the whole Rock and not just a piece of it.

Baxter and Hudson play a pair of saloon denizens. She's a house madam and he's a gambler by trade. Both decide they can do much better, especially after Hudson's little brother Barry Curtis arrives with nowhere else to go. Later on the two take in Natalie Wood an orphan girl whose father is killed in a mining accident.

This nice jerry built family is interrupted when Adams who is the spoiled daughter of a Senator and bank president Carl Benton Reid sets her cap for Hudson. She connives to get the kids taken from Baxter as an unfit parent and Hudson being no match for her wiles marries her and Baxter goes back to her old trade.

The surprise here is Julie Adams who usually plays nice women. This was a bit of offbeat casting for her, but she pulls it off. She's as manipulative as Eve Harrington.

An interesting tale, the women are fine, I could not quite grasp Hudson's character as so naive especially with his background as a gambler. You're supposed to learn to read people in that trade.

When watched with soap opera glasses, it is a lot of fun.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 11 February 2019]

Who's the real bad girl? The former gambling establishment owner who is trying to have a normal domestic life, or the Senator's daughter who has designs on the man who loves the former lady of scandal. The period triangle stars Anne Baxter, Rock Hudson and Julie Adams, and features Barry Reed and Natalie Wood as Baxter's two wards whom Adams manipulates into getting custody of so she can steal Rock for herself. It's all neatly calculated and very clever, but it's obvious that somehow true love will prevail and an embittered wife will be even more bitter.

In true soap opera fashion, Adams' character is a spoiled daddy's girl, the daughter of senator Carl Benton Reid, and the archetype that led to popular daytime soap characters like Tracy Quartermaine, Iris Cory and Vanessa Chamberlain. She is delightfully flirtatious the moment she meets the Rock, and he is not immune to her charms. But it is obviously Baxter whom he loves, and in spite of her sordid past, she is quite noble and determined to change so she can raise his young brother and the rambunctious Wood, something that gets the local church ladies talking and puts ideas into Adams' head. Adams must have reached into her acting past when she played the role of the modern but very similar Paula Denning on "Capitol" in the 1980's.

Baxter and Adams give terrific performances although Baxter tends to ovary mulch in the extremely dramatic scenes while Adams, obviously playing a shrew, is delightfully manipulative and subtle and getting what she wants. Hudson unfortunately is not a very sympathetic character, although it's easy to see why the two women would fight over him. What I did not find believable at all was Baxter's sudden desire to adopt Wood and Wood's sudden change from hellion to heroine. Betty Garde of "Caged" steals pretty much everything she's in as Baxter's feisty neighbor who becomes her closest confidante. This can really be considered enjoyable if you watch it for the camping melodrama it is.

A high class soap opera.

[coldnigga83 · 1 August 2001]

Look at Eve Harrington now! Oscar-winner Anne Baxter is marvelous in this movie, in which she plays Tacey, a gambling hall hostess who tries to go straight. She falls in love with gambler Clint Saunders (nicely played by Rock Hudson), and starts life anew with him and his brother. Julie Adams plays the bad girl who steals Clint away to the hilt. Natalie Wood gives an endearing performance as Seely, an orphan who also lives with Clint and Tacey. This is a sadly underrated film which showcases the talents of some of Hollywood's most cherished stars.

Anne Baxter and Rock Hudson

[marthawilcox1831 · 2/10 · 1 July 2014]

Having watched Anne Baxter in 'The Ten Commandments' I wanted to learn more about her track record leading up to 1956 by watching this film. Don't bother. The film fails to provide any interesting characters or an engaging storyline. You could say that it is a bad script, but there is a line where Anne Baxter says: 'The most important thing for a woman is to feel needed.' I'm not even sure if Rock Hudson succeeded in making her feel needed in the film as his character was unsympathetic. The film comes nowhere the quality of 'The Razor's Edge' where Baxter earned her Oscar by playing a sympathetic character. This is a poorly written script which does not make full use of the talents of Baxter and Hudson.

Anne and Julie square off

[jjnxn-1 · 10/10 · 6 January 2012]

A woman's drama set in the west not a western. Anne Baxter is aces as Tacey the dance hall queen who wants a simpler life with Rock Hudson, who towers over her, and his brother in a small town until outside forces cause her no end of troubles. She suffers grandly in spangles and feathers all in rich Technicolor but manages to rein in the overheated emotions with a warm controlled performance.

A performance that isn't quite as controlled and all the better for it is Julie Adams' evil rich girl. Always an excellent actress but often cast as the love interest or nice girl she is so deliciously malevolent it's a pity she didn't get a chance to chew the high grade ham more often.

Natalie Wood, her next film after this was Rebel Without a Cause, doesn't have much to do but injects what there is of her part with movie star charisma and spunk. The same goes for Rock who is called upon to be handsome and rather thick. The whole film is really just there to provide a backdrop to the ladies flashy dramatics and on that basis it serves it purpose.

Not available on DVD, hard to believe with any film that has Rock, Anne and Natalie in the cast, this is well worth seeking out.

Too melodramatic, even for me

[HotToastyRag · 4/10 · 28 March 2020]

In what was supposed to be a soapy melodrama, One Desire ended up a bit of a disappointment. With the heavy dramatic star Anne Baxter playing a stereotypical hooker with a heart of gold and the handsome Rock Hudson as a selfish playboy, you'd think nothing could go wrong with the movie. The story took turns that verged on the ridiculous, and even in a soap opera, plot points that ridiculous didn't fly. Perhaps the original novel was extremely lengthy and fleshed everything out so it made sense, and perhaps the Hollywood movie chose to include all the key points even if they were choppy and silly.

Anne starts off the head hooker in a casino who's in love with no-good cards dealer Rock. When he gets a special visitor, his long-lost kid brother, Barry Curtis, he decides on a fresh start in a new town. Without any commitment or guarantees, Anne packs her bags and goes with them to the mining town. Rock takes a room at a hotel and pays for Anne's house so they can be respectable but so she can raise his brother while he goes to work. How respectable is it to have a man you're not even engaged to paying your rent, at that time? And if Rock is such a jerk to treat her that way, why would she go with him in the first place, keep house, cook, raise his brother, and risk her reputation when he flirts with other women right in front of her? Julia Adams, a banker's daughter, is the object of the ambitious Rock's latest affection, but it turns out Julia has a mean streak in her and takes it out on Anne.

So far, this sounds like a really interesting story, right? Trust me, the second half of the movie is much less fun. You'll get to see Anne in some pretty costumes, and you'll get to see a gawky Natalie Wood in the last childish role before she reestablished herself in Rebel Without a Cause, but there's not much more incentive. For a much better Anne Baxter drama, check out Season of Passion, and for Rock Hudson in a more likable role, try A Farewell to Arms.

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned

[edwagreen · 9/10 · 8 December 2005]

Anne Baxter really delivers as a dance hall queen who gives everything up to pursue boyfriend Clint Saunders to a booming Colorado town.

On the way, she not only raises Clint's kid brother, she rears Ceilie, beautifully played by Natalie Wood. How is her kindness rewarded? She loses both children and ultimately Clint to the senator's daughter, who is viciously played by Julie Adams, the former Mrs. Ray Danton. Adams steals the picture as a conniving woman who will stop at nothing to get and keep Saunders.

The exciting ending with the underlying message of evil to him (her) who does evil is wonderful. A **** film in every sense of the word.

Not mine anyway

[searchanddestroy-1 · 4/10 · 14 April 2022]

This is the worst example of what the Universal "living room beefcake" Rock Hudson could make in those years. Not the best of the best, as you can guess, and nor the best of Jerry Hopper. Anne Baxter, poor Ann Baxter did her best at least to save the whole, but for my taste could not make it. But if you crave for the atmosphere of this fifties era, so you can spend a couple of hours watching it.

ANOTHER BEST FROM ROSS HUNTER

[grahamvr · 9/10 · 17 December 2020]

Ross Hunter produced some of the glossiest, tearful movies of the 50s and 60s and ONE DESIRE included. IMITATION OF LIFE, BACK STREET and many many more. Rock Hudson is caught between the love of two women, one who genuinely loves him and the other who tricks him into marriage. Nice to see a very young Natalie Wood also in the cast. All of the cast is well suited. I Chadwick never seen this movie before and finally found it on DVD. Very good print although color a little faded.

One of the dumbest movies I've seen in a while.

[fedor8 · 8 February 2007]

They don't make 'em like they used to, and thank God for that. This idiotic, over-dramatic soaper is as dumb as they come. (Or as dumb as they came in the 40s and 50s.) The script seems like a wager: how many dopey plot-devices and soap-opera clichés can I cram into one-and-a-half hours of film? Or maybe some Hollywood studio schmuck one day accidentally picked up a 5-cent pulp novel that his whore read while in the crapper, and thought to himself: "geez, this sure would make a damn good picture".

The film introduces us to the hooker(?)/dancer(?) with-the-heart-of-gold, Baxter, who is pure goodness; she wants to become normal. She, Hudson, and his 20 years(!) younger brother move to some wholesome little town. The first soapy plot-device doesn't wait long to rear its dumb head: the feisty little Tom-Sawyer-like Wood suddenly becomes an orphan when her father dies in a mine. Tah-dah! It's Baxter time! She shows her perfect goodness by spontaneously "adopting" Wood. How very noble. And soapy. Enter Darth Vader..., I mean, Adams. Adams wants Hudson, so as any rich person she comes up with a scheme to take away the kids (Wood and Hudson's 40 years younger brother) away from Baxter, and to adopt them herself, thereby securing her the male she craves for. Ain't that a plot-device... In this, Darth Vader is aided by his loyal female storm troopers who have gathered in the court-room to make sure the judge does the "right" thing. In the meantime, Baxter - who is pure goodness, I can't stress this often enough - is so naive and trustworthy that she never adds up 2 and 2: namely, that the woman that's been chasing Hudson could have arranged the judicial kidnapping of the kids. Baxter's reaction to losing the kids is to leave Hudson without even telling him why or where she went! What a martyr! During the next two years, Wood writes to Baxter, but we never find out how the hell Wood manages to keep it a secret from Hudson, even if Baxter asked her to. We also never find out how Hudson doesn't notice in two years that Adams is being an awful step-parent to the kids. Then we have a pathetic scene where Hudson talks to his sick father-in-law while the latter is uttering his last words. How soapy. How silly. Soon after, Wood runs away from home, for she knows that she must please the God of Soap who demands bad plot-devices. Wood is in love with a married man, which is a replica of Baxter's adolescent experience. Is this the Luke/Darth Vader cut-off-hand parallel-destinies shtick or what? Baxter brings her back to Wholesome City, where Darth Vader confronts her and rather foolishly (why??) tells her that it was she who arranged the kidnapping of Leia and Hudson's 80 years younger brother. Baxter, displaying goodness which would shame even the noblest Jedi knight, doesn't tell Hudson what she found out about the kidnapping. (Oh, by the way, Hudson has unwittingly joined the Dark Side: he has been married two years to She-Darth Vader.) Anyway, soon there is a major soapy plot-device in the form of a fire which kills the Evil One. Before-hand, the Evil One does her part in pleasing the Emperor of All Soap, who demanded that she throw things at Hudson in a rage just as Hudson was leaving the room. (The rich-bitch-throwing-things-at-her-husband/lover routine is a detail which no self-respecting trash-novel or TV soap can do without.) In short: the evil Empire has disappeared in a cloud of smoke and fire, and the forces of Good are finally free to re-unite and smile happily as the director shoots the last scene and prepares for a two-year vacation to restore his severely battered brain-cells.

I should mention that Baxter didn't use any stunt-doubles for her kissing scenes. Every time she kisses Hudson she bends her neck backward at a perfect 90-degree angle, and I swear it is her head and neck and not a double's. Maybe Baxter found out about Hudson's little secret and was afraid he might want to bite hear head off, rather than kiss it. However, her evading maneuvers weren't quite on the level of the evading maneuvers of a, say, Millennium Falcon. Hudson always got her mouth in the end, but not before Baxter bent her neck at that just-mentioned impressive angle. The cast is good (the cute Baxter, the Wood, and the Hudson) but they are wasted in what was the first prequel to "Star Wars". Living-room Star Wars, if you like