Directed by Tay Garnett
1946/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing
#185 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Frank Chambers: With my brains and your looks, we could go places.
It’s back to a studio big-budget glamour noir for this noir month viewing. I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it until today. This was based on the 1934 novel by the same name by James M. Cain. The novel had previously been adapted in the neo-realist style as the Ossessione (1942), Luchino Visconti’s first feature film. I saw Ossessione several years ago and, although I don’t remember it vividly, the story was quite a bit different. I’m now curious to read the novel.
Frank Chambers is a drifter who lands on the door of a roadside diner/gas station run by Nick Smith and his much-younger wife Cora and gets a job as a mechanic. He rapidly falls for the beautiful blonde Cora and she for him. Soon the couple is looking for a way to get the kindly Nick out of the picture. This being a film noir nothing goes smoothly, to say the least. With John Garfield as Frank, Lana Turner as Cora, Cecil Kellaway as Nick, Leon Ames as a district attorney, and Hume Cronyn as a defense attorney.
I liked this film alright but it doesn’t have the bite of my favorite noirs. Part of the problem for me may be Lana Turner’s performance. I have a problem seeing Cora as a proper femme fatale – for one thing she doesn’t seem clever enough. I was surprised to see Cecil Kellaway in the role of the husband. I would never have imagined someone British as Nick. John Garfield is always good. Probably my favorite performance was Hume Cronyn as the sleazy defense attorney.
Trailer
I think Lana’s biggest contribution to the film was her appearance in the white outfit with the white turban; otherwise she was pretty bland. But let’s me fair, she never was much of an actress. Garfield was the perfect loser in this film but, like you, I never could figure out the casting of Cecil Kellaway…..if I remember, the character of Nick was a Greek, not an Irishman, and was much more threatening.
I remember him as a Greek, too. I have the audiobook of Postman. It’s less than three hours long so I’ll give it a listen. I think Ossessione is closer than this one but I don’t remember either the novel or the film all that well.
Funny that you actually mention the audiobook. Honestly I did not read your review before giving my comment.
I think we agree pretty much on this film.
Despite our differences in age and nationality I find that we have fairly similar reactions to film. A little like Lost in Translation …