The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Spoilers ahead! I admit that I don't understand the title. As much as I tried and tried, I finally gave up. I do understand that Frank (John Garfield) and Cora (Lana Turner) attempted to commit one crime and succeeded at another without being convicted but then ironically "paid" for their crimes unexpectedly and accidentally, but what does that have to do with a postman ringing twice? My postman doesn't even ring once, and almost everything that he delivers is junk mail that gets immediately recycled before I open it. Maybe the original title "Bar BQ" should have stuck. Who knows?Aside from what I have read about the personal relationship between the two leads, which was confusing by itself, I didn't think that they were very good. I didn't believe that Garfield was emotionally involved in his part, and, sorry folks, I never appreciated Lana Turner as an actor. What was her speech affectation all about? Did you catch that? She sounded as if she had just arrived on the set from major dental surgery, and I found it very irritating. I'm glad that novelist James Cain believed that she was the perfect Cora. In an odd way, perhaps he is right because I didn't like the character that she played either.Although the film interested me at the beginning, my involvement faded fast. Cora's relationship with Nick (Cecil Kellaway) was totally unrealistic to me, and Nick's character completely annoyed me. Much of the time, I felt that I was watching a parody or a spoof of an actual drama because so many of the lines seemed so ridiculous to me. I believed that the cast felt that they were as ludicrous as I found them and delivered them accordingly with very little effort or interest. All of a sudden, out of the blue, Nick announces that he and Cora are departing for the wilds of northern Canada to care for his long lost sister. Can you picture Cora settling permanently not just in Regina or Saskatoon but in northern Sasketchewan? I could tell immediately that everyone was in trouble from that moment forward. The stage was set!I like Leon Ames alright, but if he said "laddy" just one more time I was going to smash my pc to the ceramic floor into a thousand pieces. Somehow, I managed to control myself in the "nick" of time. It just wouldn't have been worth the loss.

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. At times the film feels staged, as if the characters are going through the motions, instead of feeling all-consuming passion and prepared to murder for it. Of course we have the production code to blame for some of this, and certainly for neutering the references to rough sex present in Cain's novel. Another problem is director Tay Garnett, who is uneven in his story-telling, starting with the beginning of the illicit romance, which is implausibly abrupt. Later on we're hit with a succession of rapid (and convenient) plot devices, and the film borders on melodrama. The last scene in particular is awful. On the other hand, there are some nice moments, particularly when murder is being considered or attempted, but I don't want to spoil it. Lana Turner is gorgeous, though at 25 seems ridiculously paired with the 53 year old Cecil Kellaway (even with the explanation the script provides). The scenes of her on the beach at night with Garfield help evoke a forbidden feeling. She plays her part pretty well, with expressive eyes and some breathless moments. Of the supporting cast, Hume Cronyn stands out and is strong in the role of a lawyer. You can do worse, but you can do better.

The only part of the movie I enjoyed at all was the Nick Smith character played by Cecil Kellaway. The plot was boring. The characters Frank Chambers and Cora Smith were boring. I kept checking the clock, hoping that the movie was almost over.

Frank Chambers (John Garfield) is a drifter hitchhiking from San Fransico to San Diego. He stops outside of L.A. where he inquires about a MAN WANTED sign. Diner owner Nick Smith hires him. Surprisingly, the old plain Nick is married to the glamorous Cora (Lana Turner). After initially trying to get rid of Frank, she has an affair with him and plans to kill Nick. After some failed attempts, both Frank and Nick ride the car off the cliff. Frank survives and prosecutor Kyle Sackett tries to send them to prison. Arthur Keats (Hume Cronyn) is the lawyer defending Cora.Lana Turner is terrific. She has the desperation for something better. Right from the first moment, she is perfect for the role. I'm not as sold on Garfield. I wish he's more charismatic and more innocent. He has a bit too much of a hard edge. It's fine for a drifter but not so much when he needs to fumble the murder attempts and the police interrogation. Although they do have sexual chemistry which is saying a lot for the time.