The Postman Always Rings Twice

Plot synopsis:
Frank Chambers (John Garfield) is a hobo who stops at a rural diner for a meal and ends up working there. The diner is operated by a beautiful young woman, Cora Smith (Lana Turner), and her much older husband, Nick (Cecil Kellaway).
Frank and Cora start to have an affair soon after they meet. Cora is tired of her situation, married to a man she does not love and working at a diner that she wishes to own. She and Frank scheme to murder Nick in order to start a new life together without her losing the diner. Their first attempt at the murder is a failure, but they eventually succeed.
The local prosecutor, Kyle Sackett (Leon Ames), has deduced what really occurred but does not have enough evidence to prove it. As a tactic intended to get Cora and Frank to turn on each other, he files murder charges against only Cora. Although they turn against each other, a clever ploy from Cora's lawyer (Hume Cronyn) prevents Cora's full confession from coming into the hands of the prosecutor. With the tactic having failed to generate any new evidence for the prosecution, Cora benefits from a plea bargain in which she pleads guilty to manslaughter and receives probation.
Frank and Cora eventually patch together their relationship and plan for a future together, but as they seem to be prepared to live "happily ever after", Cora dies in a car crash while Frank is driving. Although it was truly an accident, the circumstances seem suspicious enough that Frank is accused of having staged the crash. He is convicted of murdering Cora and is sentenced to death.
When informed that his last chance at a reprieve from his death sentence has been denied and thus his execution is now at hand, Frank is at first incredulous that he will be put to death for a crime of which he is innocent. However, when informed that authorities have recently discovered irrefutable evidence of his guilt in the murder of Nick, Frank decides that his impending death is actually his overdue punishment for that crime. Frank contemplates that when a person is expecting to receive a letter, it is of no concern if at first he does not hear the postman ring the doorbell because the postman will always ring a second time, and the second ring will invariably be heard. After they escaped legal punishment for Nick's murder but with Cora now dead and Frank on his way to the death chamber, he notes that the postman has indeed rung a second time for each of them.

Tags: cult, murder

Review:
Based on Cain's sexual novel this underplays the explicit references but turns the subtle stuff way up - the film opens with a `Man Wanted' sign, while Cora is so well played that there's no doubt what she's offering.
Cain (author of "Double Indemnity") was a gritty unsentimental story of a low-class drifter and bum, Frank, who is taken in by a German immigrant, Nick, who owns a roadside café and his beautiful wife, Cora, who turns out to be much darker on the inside than the facade of her pure white skin.
That said, the movie still holds its own as a noir tale of betrayal and murder, but doesn't quite have the edge of Billy Wilder's adaption of "Double Indemnity".Still, the movie works very well under its own terms, particularly because of the outstanding chemistry between the leads John Garfield and Lana Turner.
Although lacking the enigmatic complexity of Cora, Frank is equally ambiguous and ambivalent to his life choices, and Garfield well conveys the multi-sidedness of Frank.The story concerns a young man looking for work, finds a roadside café up a few hours north of Los Angeles, probably up the 101 freeway, and becomes the hired help.
And when the hired help Frank falls for her, she realizes he is the perfect means to get both of them out of their hellish existence.A fine example of 1940's film noir with many of the stylistic considerations, such as the camera panning from feet-to-face when we first meet the woman Cora, the many unexpected twists and turns, and of course the dark desires of the leads.
But you'd do just about anything to possess this one, even murder.John Garfield was two films away from ending his long term Warner Brothers contract and certainly they gave him a good role to go out on.
Cain originally submitted the story to Alfred Knopf with the title "BBQ" (which makes sense in context) and was asked to change it; he considered "Black Puma" and "The Devil's Checkbook" before settling on the mystifying title by which the novel and both adaptations are well known.Anyway, I like the film and think it's a great straight adaptation of the book, though the dialogue in the beginning seems a bit hurried (for the sake of the quick establishment of character and story) - the book does a better job of painting the hobo/gypsy lifestyle Frank embraces, and I think it's pretty central to the eventual conflict between him and Cora, so it's a shame it wasn't better depicted in the film.Lana Turner is good, but probably just a bit mis-cast - she's a little too "glamorous" for Cora, which is also established immediately in the famous opening shot of her legs and lipstick (in contrast to the book, where she was introduced in an apron, working hard for the business like she always says she wants to.) One note for femme-fatale buffs: Cora and Nick in the film are surnamed "Smith," which in the book was Cora's maiden name.
I have to say though, the movie had some very good irony and employed a load of classic film noir tricks (the final outcome must have influenced the Coen Brothers with "The Man Who Wasn't There"), but I can't help believing the book must have been a lot better.
John Garfield's character Frank Chambers is a strong supporting role and I really liked his sense of humor and the way he portrayed his infatuation with Cora, I felt the passion between those two after that infamous lip lock.
Lighting throughout the film also helped to make the mood suspicious (in the way of her careless husband Nick) yet captivating and sensual (Cora's form fitting outfits and intense kissing scene) I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and enjoyed it all to myself this time too!.
Lana Turner and John Garfield are great in this classic tale of deception and murder and its hard to imagine that another actress, save Barbara Stanwyck or Joan Crawford, could have played the role of the wayward wife as well as did Turner.
"The Postman Always Ring Twice" made an impact on the way movies looked at the time, when the censure of the Hays Code dominated what could be shown on the screen for general consumption.James M.
The great camera work of Sidney Wagner made this movie a classic for its sensual look it focused on its female star.Nick, the older owner of the roadside diner, has married Cora, a woman much too young for him.
Leon Ames, Hume Cronyn are seen in small roles."The Postman Always Ring Twice" is a classic of this genre thanks to Ty Garnett's direction and a brilliant appearance by an inspired Lana Turner..
The good atmosphere and Lana Turner's memorable role make this a film-noir classic worth seeing.
The story starts out to be relatively simple, allowing the cast and the atmosphere to carry it, and then heads through a series of twists and turns, picking up the pace as it goes along.John Garfield and the supporting cast are solid, but it is Turner who really stands out and grabs the attention anytime she is on-screen.
Turner's character and performance, in particular (aided by good camera work), demonstrate that the suggestive can be quite a bit more effective and memorable than the explicit."The Postman Always Rings Twice" has just about everything you could ask for in a film-noir.
I think how he is naive character, actually know that he is in love, and vice versa.Lana Turner as Cora Smith It is quite good as frustrated beautiful woman who wants out of life to do something.
Finally, however, I, too,I found it interesting all the way through.Hume Cronyn, not the stars of the film John Garfield and Lana Turner, sparked my interest.
Cecil Kellaway also is good as Tuner's husband, and I enjoyed Leon Ames as the district attorney.The film almost makes the two low-life leads into sympathetic characters, which is just plain wrong and probably also why twisted critics all like this.
John Garfield (Frank) drifts into a small town and gets work at a café/diner run by an unlikely husband and wife team, Cecil Kellaway (Nick) and Lana Turner (Cora).
I didn't have any expectations, seeing as I barely knew what it was about - I just figured it would be good."The Postman Always Rings Twice" is never boring, but it's too long by half an hour, if not more, and it's hard to believe that Frank and Cora would risk so much for each other when their relationship is based purely on physical attraction.
And although the Nick Smith character (played by Cecil Kellaway) provides us with some well-needed comic relief while Lana Turner is able keep the viewer's interest with her intense performance, the film still lacks rational thought or a believable portrayal of the couple's supposed burning passion for each other.
Basically just watched this for history's sake.I have heard better dialogue in other "classic" films, also I did not feel magnetism between Garfield and Turner...more a gradual entwining of chains about them.The pace picked up in the second half, but I couldn't throw away hundreds of more recent films I've seen...nor suspend my belief through some just plain bad decisions.Ah bad decisions, I feel like there's only so many I will allow in any film...one of the more interesting moments in this, takes place as Lana basically admits to loving money more than Garfield...now that seemed honest...and a little dangerous to explore, more so than a car being tipped off a cliff.Really I'm sorry, I wanted to enjoy this more...now I worry what my grandchildren will think of "Body Heat".
Cain pulp novel/turned literature is Lana Turner as Cora, but not for her acting, which was ordinary, but because she looked so good.
(People on the set may have needed to wear shades.) After she returns from her mother's funeral, Garnett has her in the blackest black from a black hat to her black shoes--heels, I should emphasize, since she was almost always in heels in the movie, even returning from the beach or crawling up a canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains, she was in heels.John Garfield, who plays Frank Chambers as though wandering through the role (which is not entirely inappropriate), is sympathetic and has the kind of raw animal appeal that we would expect to see in Cain's depression-era antihero.
Cecil Kellaway, who plays Nick (in this case a "Nick Smith," not the Greek immigrant Nick Papadakis from the novel) does the best acting job as he brings a bit of the delusive psychology of an older man with a beautiful young wife to life when he announces that he selling the café and moving to the backwoods of Canada so Cora can take care of him and his invalid sister!
"The Postman Always Rings Twice" is a superb adaptation of Cain's novel and its story of sexual attraction, adultery, murder, and betrayal still resonates beautifully today.I'd like to answer the previous posting asking for an explanation of the title but to do so would give away the exquisite twist ending of the film.
Not to be overlooked is the terrific legal strategizing by the defense attorney near the end of the film.To quote Cain, "Postman" is about "a couple of jerks who discover that a murder, though dreadful enough morally, can be a love story too, but then wake up to discover that once they've pulled the thing off, no two people can share this terrible scret and live on the same earth."  Leff & Simmons, p.
A young hunky drifter named Frank (John Garfield) comes across a restaurant/gas station run by old Nick (Cecil Kellaway) and his young wife Cora (Lana Turner).
Frank and Cora fall in love and plan to run away together...but things don't turn out as planned.It's overlong and very convoluted at the end but this is a classic of film noir.
This film noir has Lana Turner as Cora, the naive wife of a much older roadside café owner, clashing with Frank, a drifter, played by John Garfield, who rolls into town and gets a job at the diner.
The two begin a flaming romance and eventually plot the murder of Cora's husband, with insurmountable ramifications.Although not perhaps the most realistic or gritty noir, "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is memorable for two reasons: first, because it was perhaps the first instance in which MGM sweater girl Lana Turner was truly able to cut her teeth; and second, its atmosphere is explosively provocative and quietly dazzling.Shadowy and slow burning, the film moves between worlds as Cora and Frank become a singular threat to Nick, and their fate unravels and splinters into a dramatic finale.
Classic film noir with a star-making performance from Lana Turner.
In the movie, a drifter (John Garfield) takes a job at a roadside restaurant and falls for the proprietor's young wife (Lana Turner).
Lana Turner and John Garfield may be the perfect film noir couple--she's got the 40's hair and that come hither look.
He even takes Frank in and treats him like a pseudo-son, so the decision to do away with him make Frank and Cora all the more evil, and the crime more senseless than those in most films of that era."The Postman Always Rings Twice" is definitely a must-see for anyone who appreciates the art of film noir, and remains a classic, spawning a 1981 remake starring Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson.
Cain's bristling novel of love, betrayal, and murder.Garfield plays Frank Chambers (a role he was born to play), a drifter, whose "feet are just achin to go places," he spots a sign at a cafe that says "Man Wanted," and that's where the fun begins.He meets Cora Smith, a beautiful blonde, silhouetted in the doorway, bathed in white.
One of the most exciting and provocative film noir of the 1940's (and of one of the most simplest also) "The Postman Always Rings Twice" brings the bittersweet love story between a drifter and a married woman that turns out into a plot of murder, tragedies and deceptions.
John Garfield plays Frank Chambers, the mysterious man who entered in a almost abandoned restaurant conduced by Nick (Cecil Kellaway) and his wife Cora (Lana Turner), who is the main factor of why he takes a job in the place just to be near her.
Cain (who also wrote "Double Indemnity", story very similar as this one), "TPART" follows the book at parts, changes some of the names (Nick's Greek last name in the book was translated as Smith in the film, Hollywood had those xenophobic feelings sometimes) and situations (Lana's Cora is way more aggressive/controlling/smart than the one of the novel while Frank is quite well-mannered opposed to the dirty one of Cain's book), improving other suitable for a story considered scandalous in its time but the basis of the book is present here and is brilliantly presented.
The relationship between Frank and Cora is precisely well made, delivering lots of sensuality by showing less than we want to see and this whole thing made the film a perfect stage for Turner and Garfield to show their acting abilities.
As Lana Turner pointed out her task was more difficult given what she and Garfield had to work, and the way they built their relation in the film without showing sex and body parts was more effective than the one of the remake, which was quite gratuitous at times (but I like both versions).
But the film is not just a love story, it's also a noir and Tay Garnett directed a wonderful film noir, wise in setting the musical score in a good way (musics were excessive in films those days played all the time) creating tension not only between the attempts of murdering Nick but also during the heated discussions between Frank and Cora, when one turned against the other when things didn't happened the way they planned.
The explanation worked as a morality device for the film, things very common in that era (thankfully, the remake avoided this).Great performances by the cast which also includes Hume Cronyn playing Frank and Cora's lawyer, who always keeps repeating to them "I'll handle it" referring about the case; great plot and a great film, this is a really must see for film noir fans out there.
******* The Postman Always Rings Twice (5/2/46) Tay Garnett ~ John Garfield, Lana Turner, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn.
This rightly famous film stands as one of the best of the whole noir genre, perhaps jostling with that other great James M Cain adaptation, Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity" for the crown itself.Yes, the story and situations are unbelievable but placed in believable settings and peopled by believable characters, the film roars to life from the second Lana Turner's lip-stick rolls John Garfield's way in one of the best character introduction scenes ever.The first half of the film explores the explosive and obviously intensely physical relationship between Turner's downtrodden trophy wife Cora Smith, and Garfield's streetwise can't believe-his-luck drifter, who quickly go on to cuckold her older, simple but still domineering souse of a husband Nick, played beautifully by Cecil Kelloway.
Despite lapses in the legalities of our judicial system, we have a pretty good 1946 film here.Lana Turner goes from a churlish young lady to a nasty woman plotting the murder of her simple alcoholic hash slinging husband, played nicely by Cecil Kellaway.
Cain adaptation, Billy Wilder's superior "Double Indemnity" before taking a more convoluted, courtroom based ending.Lana Turner and John Garfield have heaps of chemistry together, and the first two thirds of the film are highly entertaining, regardless of how many times the plot has been recycled since.
Case in point, "The Postman Always Rings Twice" with absolute knockout performances by John Garfield and Lana Turner.
A drifter, Frank (John Garfield) stops at a remote restaurant/gas station owned by Nick and his beautiful younger wife Cora (Lana Turner).
Just about the finest noir you will ever experience.Lana Turner is superb and gives her finest performance as the frustrated wife of an older husband who falls in love with the hired hand played by John Garfield.A well-scripted,well-directed and superbly-acted tale of deceit, adultery,lying and murder which must surely rank as one of the best 100 U.S. films ever made.Not to be missed or ommited from any film library..
Postman stars Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Leon Ames, and Hume Cronyn.
Cain's best-selling novel, this film-noir classic features Lana Turner in one of her best roles as a beautiful and sexy little tart who convinces her lover(John Garfield) to help off her dull old husband(Cecil Kellaway) so they can be together.
Animal lovers beware of this.Now to the excellent cast: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Audrey Totter and Hume Cronyn.
A decent enough classic film noir and Lana Turner is stunning, but it lacks a hard edge.Part of the problem with 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' is that John Garfield is a little soft in the role of Frank the drifter, and I didn't feel real heat between him and Lana Turner.
Cain novel that stars John Garfield as drifter Frank Chambers, who is given a lift by the local District Attorney, who lets him off at a roadside gas station café run by Nick & Cora Smith(played by Cecil Kellaway & Lana Turner).
This film was the pinnacle of John Garfield's career, and Lana Turner NEVER looked more beautiful.
John Garfield And Lana Turner As The Two Main Characters Deliver Brilliantly Acted And Strong Performances, And The Direction Of Filmmaker Tay Garnett Who Beautifully Made "The Postman Always Rings Twice" With Ballance Mix Of a Love Story And Combined it Also With a Little Bit Of Film Noir And Suspense To it.