James M. Cain (1892–1977)

Lana Turner and John Garfield hunger for something more in Tay Garnett’s glossy soap opera noir, The Postman Always Rings Twice. Based on James M. Cain’s lusty potboiler, Turner is fantastic as the manipulative yet vulnerable Cora Smith, with Garfield matching her as the drifter who can't get Cora or her dreams out of his blood. Turner is like a white creme, icy cold on the surface but burning hot and deep with desire underneath.

Cora is a girl aware of her looks and the effect she has on men. Since she was 14 she’s had to argue with men about it. But she didn't have to argue with Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway), a much older man Cora marries for security, not love. When drifter Frank Chambers (Grafield) shows up to fill the Help Wanted sign at the Twin Oaks Diner the mismatched couple run together, Cora discovers she can’t live without love or passion.

Cora is a smouldering vision in white when Frank first sees her, a room full of gas that only needs a single spark to ignite it. Frank knows he can sell anything to anybody and begins to fan the flames when he talks Nick into getting a neon sign for the diner Cora wants the place to be. She tries in her own way to resist what is going to happen between she and Frank, but deep down knows that all the things she married Nick for and clings to are the things she really wants with Frank.

Cora lets him kiss her once then keeps Frank at a distance, working him into a frenzy of desire. A midnight swim seals their fate, the gas now ignited and burning out of control. By the time love is involved, Frank knows nothing can stand in the way of Cora’s dreams.

Garfield is excellent here as a guy who knows he’s signed on for a one way ride to nowhere but can’t help himself. There is a tricky D.A. (Leon Ames) onto them after a botched attempt to live out Cora’s dreams fails. Hume Cronyn is terrific as a crafty defense attorney who throws a monkey wrench into things, but an insurance policy, jealousy, and blackmail gone awry bring them back to the beach, and memories of that swim. Maybe they can even atone for their scenes, unless Fate has other plans…

Turner gives an icy hot performance here, with many long takes between she and Garfield as they are drawn to each other like moths to a flame. Much is made of director Tay Garnett framing Turner in sexy white outfits throughout the film. In her best scene, however, and the one in which she is the most strikingly beautiful, she is dressed in a black bathrobe. She is in the kitchen at the time, caressing a knife and agonizing over her dreams and what needs to be done to make them come true. When Frank walks in on her, her voice catches, her reluctance to follow through real. She tells Garfield in a quivering voice: "If you really loved me…”

Whereas Wilder’s Double Indemnity was a dark noir of twisted passion and greed set in Claifornia, Garnett’s The Postman Always Rings Twice uses the bright sunshine and beaches of Los Angeles County in the 1940s to create a soap opera noir, with the shining blonde Turner and a reluctant drifter Garfield at its center. A good glossy noir.… (mer)

You can call this pulp if you want to, but I assure you, it's much more than that. Although I wouldn't call it great literature, it still has plenty of literary merit. After my first Cain novel, [b:The Postman Always Rings Twice|25807|The Postman Always Rings Twice|James M. Cain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1344265267l/25807._SY75_.jpg|808562] which I hated, I'm not sure why I picked up this one, but I'm glad I did. The characterization and believable dialogue, totally absent in "Postman", is superb here. Even though it slowed in the Operatic sections, it still held my interest because Cain's passion for the music transferred to me. The church scene was original and awesome. I'd read it again just for that.… (mer)

Perhaps if you read this when it came out in 1934, you may have thought it was the cat's meow, but now in 2021, with so much better noir-type fiction behind us, this book is just blah. One interviewer wrote that it seems that a 8th grader wrote it. That's what I kept thinking as I plodded through the terrible, unbelievable dialogue. This stuff makes Mickey Spillane look like Shakespeare. The characters are one-dimensional and unredeemable. The only character I half-way liked was killed off early, and those that remained were "total skunks"--that's eighth grade description for worthless human debris.… (mer)