Greer Garson and Robert Mitchum deserve better than Desire Me, an unconvincing romance that, while not terrible, nevertheless can't seem to escape the muddle that it gets itself into. The flashback sequences are intended to create dramatic tension and interest, but they wear after a while, and the ending in which the psychiatrist wraps up Garson's troubles about her guilt so quickly doesn't convince. It's also a problem that the audience never really gets a chance to see for itself the development of the relationship between Mitchum and Garson. Instead, Garson talks about the intensity of their feelings for each other, but the audience, not witnessing it for itself, is kept emotionally at a distance and doesn't have the investment in this crucial part of the film. Similarly, not enough time is allowed to pass between Garson being told Mitchum is dead and her deciding to marry Richard Hart. It would be one thing if the love between Garson and Mitchum had not been as deep as she claimed, if that was a fantasy she had draped around it; that would have been the basis for a different, and far more interesting movie. But that's not the case, and the audience balks at the character's quick change of heart. The actors all do well with what they have to work with, and without a firm directorial hand (no director is officially credited, although George Cukor and Mervyn LeRoy, along with one and possibly two others, worked on it). Without a strong presence at the helm, the film flounders, leaving the cast to pull it all together.
