Classic Movie Review: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946 and 1981)

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Directed by: Tay Garnett.

Written by: Harry Ruskin and Niven Busch based on the novel by James M. Cain.

Starring: Lana Turner (Cora Smith), John Garfield (Frank Chambers), Cecil Kellaway (Nick Smith), Hume Cronyn (Arthur Keats), Leon Ames (Kyle Sackett), Audrey Totter (Madge Gorland), Alan Reed (Ezra Liam Kennedy), Jeff York (Blair).

 

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)

Directed by: Bob Rafelson.

Written by: David Mamet based on the novel by James M. Cain.

Starring: Jack Nicholson (Frank Chambers), Jessica Lange (Cora Papadakis), John Colicos (Nick Papadakis), Michael Lerner (Mr. Katz), John P. Ryan (Kennedy), Anjelica Huston (Madge), William Traylor (Sackett), Thomas Hill (Barlow), Christopher Lloyd (The Salesman). 

 

James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice was published in 1934 – but it took a dozen years for Hollywood to make it into a film – not because of a lack of interest, but because the novel was so sexual that they didn’t think it could be done. That didn’t stop the French or the Italians – both countries made an unauthorized adaptation of the novel in the years between (I’ve seen Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione – and loved it – although it’s not the easiest film to track down these days. When they finally did make the novel into a film, in 1946, they produced one of the classic era’s definitive noirs. It had all the ingredients to make a great noir – a beautiful femme fatale, a poor dupe who gets drawn into a web of deceit and eventually murder. Love and lust conspire to destroy these characters.

 

There are a few things that I’ve always loved about the 1946 film version make it rare for a noir. The film doesn’t take place in the city, it’s not always raining, and it’s not always nighttime. This is small town America – close to Los Angeles, but far enough away to make it feel dusty and small. The plot of the movie is classic noir – a man meets and falls for a woman, who convinces him to get involved in a crime, usually murder, usually of her husband – that he would never normally commit if he was thinking clearly, and is destroyed in the process. And yet, in The Postman Always Rings Twice, the two main characters are a lot more sympathetic than most – a lot sadder. The motive of Cora (Lana Turner) may be the same – she wants free of her husband, but doesn’t want to give up the money he has, but it’s not as heartless as it sounds. Turner plays Cora as a sad woman – a woman who has been treated as a sex object since her teenage years, decided to settle down – get something out of it – and ends up miserable, in a loveless marriage, in a small town, with a man who lacks ambition. The murder plan is evil – but it comes from a more tragic place. As for Frank (John Garfield), the drifter she convinces to kill her husband, he’s not quite the dope they normally are – and and he is very much in love with Cora, and for once, he isn’t fooled by obvious lies – she loves him too. Lust certainly has much to do with it – this is a film that is dripping is sexuality, all the more because of what they couldn’t show onscreen. Their chemistry is instant, and electric. Frank is smart enough to want out – even finds his way more than once – but he just cannot stay away.

 

Also, it must be said, that the pair of them don’t come up with just one murder plot – but two. The first one goes awry, and even though they know they will have suspicion thrown onto them, they go through with the second one anyway. Both plots are kind of half-formed – it feels like neither of one of them is truly thought through in any real way. The film continues a long time after that as well – the noose closes pretty tightly, pretty quickly – but, rare for a noir, they go through the trial, and other legal avenues. This gives both of them a chance to betray the other – and still, come back together. They are behaving like idiots, know it, but they cannot stop themselves. The 1946 film is as much romantic melodrama as it is film noir – a story of two people who fall in love, but cannot be together, and it destroys them – but not before they destroy other things on their way down.

 

The performances are great – Turner was perhaps never better, given an opportunity to do more than be a sex symbol (the film even tries to undercut that at certain points, with strange wardrobe choices). I love the weariness she brings to the role – the way she gives a tired sigh when she comes into Garfield’s room to discuss the murder. Garfield has always been good as playing men juggling their morality – trying to do the right thing, and not always succeeding. This isn’t quite the performance of say, Force of Evil, but it remains one of his best. For Garnett, who had a 50-year career starting in the silent era, and going into the 1970s, the film is probably his best known – he is able to take this strange story, with his twists and turns – a plot that basically climaxes half way through, and then restarts, and finds the perfect pace for it. The Postman Always Rings Twice remains one of the quintessential noirs – and one of the best.

 

Which brings me to Bob Rafelson’s 1981 remake. In theory, this is the type of movie that would work best as a remake – unrestrained by the codes that muted the sexuality in the 1946 version – which in the Cain novel was raw and animalistic, qualities that everyone involved in the remake from director Rafelson to writer David Mamet to star Jack Nicholson, said were important to bring out in this film. And, to be fair, this is a film that has a lot of sex in it. Refreshingly, and rather shockingly (considering that now, nearly 40 years later, films still rarely care about it) – the film takes Cora’s sexuality, and pleasure, as seriously – if not more so – than Frank’s. That first sex scene – probably the most famous in the film – starts out in what could be mistaken for the precursors to a rape – but she takes control of that scene the longer it goes on. And she gets what she wants throughout the film’s multiple sex scenes.

 

Jessica Lange has the role of Cora – and it’s probably the movie that made her into a star. It’s easy to see why – Lange was gorgeous – it’s what got her first movie role in the 1976’s King Kong (which didn’t launch her career) – and is dripping with sexuality. She didn’t have the restrictions on her that Lana Turner did – who had to exude that same sexuality under stricter guidelines. She isn’t as sad as Turner was – not quite as beaten down – but she is certainly headed down that path. It is a great performance – probably the best single aspect of the movie.

 

As Frank though. Jack Nicholson is miscast. He’s too old for one thing – too far into middle age, and you never quite believe that he would be so in love (or lust) with Lange’s Cora that he would do everything that he does. Perhaps it’s just Jack’s image – his movie star status, his well-known womanizing – that make it harder to believe. Nicholson does what he can with the role – but it’s a role doesn’t suit him at this point in his career.

 

The film was directed by Bob Rafelson – and it is a great looking film. The film’s de-saturated colors look great, and every frame is filled with grit, dust and sweat. The pacing is a little bit slower than the original film – and it feels much longer (it’s only about 10 minutes longer than the first film). The major action in the film is done by about the halfway point – and the film’s courtroom scenes don’t quite have the same snap as the original. The D.A. is much less of a character here – and much less of a presence. Michael Lerner is fine as their defense lawyer – but he’s no Hume Cronyn. There’s also the ending of the film – which isn’t so much changed from the original, as much as it is cut short. In one way, you can argue that is the end of the story – as it’s the end of Frank and Cora – but it lacks the ironic twist of the original, and kind just stops.

 

Rafelson’s The Postman Always Rings Twice is fine – it’s a good film – but it’s not as good as the book or the original. It really does feel like everyone involved were most interested in exploring the raw, animalistic sex more than anything else – and it does that. You can certainly argue that the film is a forbearer to the erotic thrillers (like Basic Instinct) that would become more popular a decade later. What we end with here is a great looking film, with a marvelous, star-making performance by Jessica Lange that just doesn’t have the same impact as the original.