The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

The Postman Always Rings Twice
Directed by Tay Garnett
1946/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing
#185 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Frank Chambers: With my brains and your looks, we could go places.[/box]

It’s back to a studio big-budget glamour noir for this installment of noir month.  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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi4UaQWN_H8

Trailer