The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)

Load of rubbish!!

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Good story and actors deliver fine entertainment in this movie drama. The movie moves at a steady pace unraveling along the way making the viewer wonder what would they do and why along with the characters. In the course of the story being told, interesting developments take place adding more viewer attraction. Worthy to note is the little diner and where it is located. Quiet diner, with traffic that does repairs and sells gas sustains itself if you work it. They apparently get greedy and work other things thus making one wonder what was the point? The idea of appreciating something after you lost it is introduced here not once but twice and you wonder why it took two times. Enter human nature and perhaps as many as 70 times for the many to come around if they have grace. In this movie, the characters ran out of that plus time and what was lost stays that way. Another interesting note. Watch how people who break the law try to live a normal life. But the question begs...How can they? Its not what you have but how you came to have it that all mankind has to answer for. In this movie, they show you how you can gain the whole world but lose your soul and is demonstrated very well. While the postman may ring twice to make sure you get your package....

The story of a drifter working on a by the road dinner, and the owner's wife, disenchanted with her marriage sets upon herself to seduce the drifter in the hopes of a more satisfying relationship.This is the base of the script, in which Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson shine in their performances bringing different dimensions to their characters and, in true, bringing them to life.Frank Chambers (Jack Nicholson) is a bored drifter, with some jail time under his belt not looking for anything in particular. He gets enchanted by Cora (Jessica Lange) and ends up doing everything for them to be together.I think Jack Nicholson is an outstanding performer and it shows here some glimpses of what he will put in The Shining later on.I also particularly liked John P. Ryan in the small supporting role of Kennedy where we can see in him the double-stabbing typical that he will show in later roles.All in all it is a good movie, but I don't consider it as being erotic. Maybe for 1980's standards, but even so I doubt it.

In March 1927 Long Island housewife Ruth Snyder and her lover, Judd Gray, joined together to murder Snyder's husband, Albert, for the insurance money. Both were caught, tried, convicted, and swiftly executed. A notorious case, the Snyder-Gray affair became pop culture legend when Thomas Howard, a New York 'Daily News' photographer, surreptitiously photographed Snyder's death in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison. Published in the 'Daily News' on Jan. 12, 1928, the photo caused such a sensation that the newspaper had to print an additional 750,000 copies. Six years later James M. Cain's novel, 'The Postman Always Rings Twice', fictionalized the Snyder-Gray case to critical and popular acclaim. In 1946 Cain's book was brought to the screen by M-G-M with John Garfield as Frank Chambers (Judd Gray's counterpart), the glamorous Lana Turner as Cora Smith (the Ruth Snyder figure), and Cecil Kellaway as Nick Smith (based on victim Albert Snyder). In Cain's novel, Nick is Nick Papadakis, a swarthy, rather venal Greek greasy spoon proprietor. Interestingly the 1946 film version softens Nick's personality and elides his Mediterranean ethnicity but retains the fact that he is considerably older than his wife (at the time of filming Turner was 25 and Kelloway was 52). Bob Rafelson's remake, written by playwright/screenwriter David Mamet, is a more faithful adaptation of Cain's novel and—15 years after the collapse of the Hays Code—is also vastly more sexually explicit. In Rafelson's version Jack Nicholson is cast as dissolute drifter Frank Chambers, Jessica Lange is the bored, oversexed wife, Cora Papadakis, John Colicos plays Nick (restored to his full, greasy ethnic unattractiveness), and Angelica Huston appears (gratuitously) as Madge, a circus tamer of big cats who has a fling with Frank. With solid acting, sure direction by Rafelson, superb production design by George Jenkins ('The Parallax View'; 'All the President's Men'), and outstanding cinematography by Ingmar Bergman stalwart Sven Nykvist, the 1981 version of 'Postman' should have been a neo-noir classic. Unfortunately something fails to click—most probably the chemistry between Nicholson and Lange, which depends too much on simulated high-octane animal attraction and not enough on real simpatico. While quite good, Rafelson's version is strangely flat and uninvolving; we end up not caring very much what happens to Frank and Cora. VHS (1993); DVD (1997).

Disappointing is the first word that comes to mind after sitting through this sexed-up noir remake of a 1946 film of the same name based on a popular novel. This critic has neither seen the original, nor read that novel, so he is forced to take this film on face value and evaluate it on its own merits. That said, The Postman Always Rings Twice failed to come close to my expectations. You won't care a lick about drifter Jack Nicholson and bored housewife Jessica Lange who start a torrid love affair behind the back of her husband, and then look to kill him off. These two amoral jerks are all dressed up with nowhere to go in this script, and once the deed is done, the story really jumps the tracks. This was an intriguing premise, but the many talented people who made this film have all done much better things.The biggest selling point for this film was its steamy sex scenes, and there are indeed a few. But something is missing. Something that should be fairly obvious to those of us who have had sex in our lives. Nobody is ever nude during them! Save for one brief scene where we see Nicholson's rear, there is a jarring lack of nudity. At times these people seem to be having intercourse right through their clothes! I've heard Nicholson is a legendary lover, but is he strong enough to.... I'll stop there. What happened? I'm sure they at least negotiated with Lange about perhaps a topless scene or something. I guess she said no. Look, one does not need nudity for a sexy scene. The only interesting scene in Random Hearts is a testament to that. But when you advertise your picture as a steamy, sexy thriller, you pretty much have to go all in, or the whole thing is a waste.Aside from the sex scenes, this film seems confused about what its characters are supposed to do once the husband is out of the way. And the conclusion is so abrupt, its almost like they ran out of money and just decided to kill one of the leads off and call it a wrap. The acting isn't bad, but thats about all the film has going for it. Lange is her typical self... not great, but not bad either. Nicholson is born to play this type of character, and he doesn't disappoint. You may remember John Collicos from TV's Battlestar Galactica. Angelical Huston is on hand for a cameo that they probably just gave her when she was hanging around the set to be close to her main squeeze Nicholson. This film is really just a waste of your time when you consider all of the better pictures these people have made. Avoid it. 4 of 10 stars. And what does the title have to do with the movie, anyway? The Hound.