Romancefest 26: The Postman Always Rings Twice

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by one of my favorite authors, James M. Cain. This 1946 version is not as successful as adapting Cain's material as DOUBLE INDEMNITY was a couple years before, but then the screen version of INDEMNITY was written by one of the greatest writers of all time, Raymond Chandler, and directed by one of the greatest directors of all time, Billy Wilder.

In fact, POSTMAN isn't even as successful at adapting Cain as BODY HEAT is -- and that's not even directly based on Cain, just inspired.

Still, the movie's not terrible. It's just not great either. It's okay.

The film is classified as film noir, mostly because of the plot elements -- a drifter comes to town and conspires with a femme fatale to murder her husband. No one's the good guy, no one's the bad guy, everyone's basically sleazy. There you have it.

But, it's missing the rest of what makes film noir great, mostly the look. Sure, it's black and white, but it's not shot particularly well -- there isn't a lot of the dramatic use of shadow and light sources that define other greats (and not-so-greats) of the genre. So, the looks renders the movie kind of bland.

In fact, pretty much the only exciting thing the movie has going for it is Lana Turner as the femme fatale, Cora. She's in a loveless marriage with a man who owns a roadside gas station and diner (Cecil Kellaway). She has dreams for the family business, but could do without her husband, so when drifter Frank Chambers (John Garfield) rolls into town and takes a job as an extra man at the diner, she takes advantage of his lust for her to get the murder ball rolling.

Or, does she? Maybe she's really into him. I guess it's not fair to totally blame her, though a lot of film noir revolves around the idea that women are predatory creatures just waiting to take care of weak and cowardly men. Frank Chambers is definitely weak and cowardly, but he also doesn't seem to have a moral bone in his body and is more than happy to help with the murder plot, especially after an initial attempt to run off with Cora is foiled by how much it sucks to hitchhike and not have money.

The film retains a lot of the novel, but loses some of the fire towards the end in which there's a last ditch effort to explain the title and also a hint at salvation through love for the main character.

I guess this movie made the AFI list because of how steamy a couple of the scenes between Turner and Garfield, but aside from their initial meeting I'd say there isn't a lot of chemistry here. It must have been shocking at the time, but these days it has lost some of its power.

The film really isn't about love and lust so much as it is about suspicion. Once the murder is done, Turner and Garfield attempt to live with each other and end up driving each other insane second guessing each other and attempting to screw each other over. On one hand you'd think your partner in crime would be the only person you can trust, but on the other it makes sense they'd be at the top of your list of suspects.