The Postman Always Rings Twice [Blu-ray]

Overview

James M. Cain's novel received its first authorized screen treatment in this MGM production. Drifter Frank Chambers (John Garfield) takes a job at a roadhouse run by slovenly but likeable Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway). Nick's sexy young wife Cora (Lana Turner) takes an immediate liking to Frank, but he senses that she's trouble and he keeps his distance--for a while, anyway. Inevitably succumbing to Cora's tawdry charms, Frank enters into her scheme to murder Nick and claim the old boy's insurance money. Not long after committing the foul deed, Frank and Cora are arrested. Thanks to the conniving of slimy attorney Arthur Keats (Hume Cronyn), the illicit lovers are able to beat the murder rap--but, as the film's title symbolically indicates, they eventually pay for their misdeeds in an unexpected manner. Fans of the James M. Cain original--not to mention Cain himself--were aghast at the changes made in the novel by screenwriters Harry Ruskin and Niven Busch; many of the alterations were made to conform with censorship standards of the era, while others simply existed to massage the egos of the stars. Even so, the 1946 version of The Postman Always Rings Twice is infinitely more satisfying than the no-holds-barred 1981 remake, directed by Bob Rafelson with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/13/2012
UPC:	0883929261956
Original Release:	1946
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Home Video
Presentation:	[B&W, Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:53:00
Sales rank:	15,520

Special Features

Introduction by Richard Jewell; Lana Turner...A Daughter's Memoir; The John Garfield Story; Phantoms, Inc.; Red Hot Riding Hood; Screen Guild Theater Broadcast; Theatrical Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

John Garfield	Frank Chambers
Lana Turner	Cora Smith
Cecil Kellaway	Nick Smith
Hume Cronyn	Arthur Keats
Leon Ames	Kyle Sackett
Audrey Totter	Madge Gorland
Alan Reed	Ezra Liam Kennedy
Jeff York	Blair
Charles Williams	Jimmie White
A. Cameron Grant	Willie
Wally Cassell	Ben
William Halligan	Judge
Morris Ankrum	Judge
Garry Owen	Truck Driver
Dorothy Phillips	Nurse
Edward Earle	Doctor
Byron Foulger	Picnic Manager
Sondra Morgan	Matron
Jeffrey Sayre	Reporter
Walter Ridge	Reporter
Dick Crockett	Reporter
James Darrell	Reporter
Brick Sullivan	Officer,Doctor
Paul Krueger	Officer
Paul Kruger	Officer
Philip Ahlm	Photographer
John Alban	Photographer
Harold Miller	Photographer
Reginald Simpson	Photographer
Betty Blythe	Customer
Helen McLeod	Customer
Hilda Rhodes	Customer
Joel Friedkin	John X. MacHugh
Jack Chefe	Headwaiter
George Noisom	Telegraph Messenger
Frank Mayo	Bailiff
Bud Harrison	Bailiff
Virginia Randolph	Snooty Woman
Tom Dillon	Father McConnell
Howard Mitchell	Doctor
James Farley	Warden
Edgar Sherrod	Man
Dan Quigg	Man
Oliver Cross	Man
Paul Bradley	Man
Paula Ray	Woman

Technical Credits

Niven Busch

Harry Ruskin

Tay Garnett	Director
Niven Busch	Screenwriter
Harry Ruskin	Screenwriter
Carey Wilson	Producer

Editorial Reviews

The Ten Commandments take a beating in 1946's The Postman Always Rings Twice, a lusty noir thriller adapted from the novel by James M. Cain (Double Indemnity). John Garfield portrays a drifter whose adulterous relationship with the wife (Lana Turner) of his new employer (Cecil Kellaway) leads to thoughts of murder. Animal magnetism is the name of the game here, and Turner and Garfield play it to the hilt, with Turner's cool, platinum-blonde allure a perfect foil for the thuggish Garfield's lecherous leering. They make excellent (and nicely unsympathetic) partners in crime, too: She's the last word in manipulation, and he's as cocky as can be. Kellaway, meanwhile, plays the husband as the definitive cuckold, a naïve and affable fellow who eventually reveals himself to be both a tyrant and a lush. It's a well-drawn triangle, and it leads to a large number of surprising twists. This is golden-era Hollywood, so don't expect crime to pay. But the anticipation of finding out who meets what bad end, and how, keeps this classic cruising along from start to finish. Italian director Luchino Visconti’s neo-realist Obsessione, made in 1942, was actually the first film version of the novel, which was adapted for the screen once again in 1981, this time with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange as the ill-fated lovers. This Postman, though, remains the definitive version.

Barnes & Noble - Gregory Baird

A classic 1940s film noir, The Postman Always Rings Twice is shot through with an overwhelming sense of the inevitability of fate. In the tradition of Greek tragedy, characters who appear to be in control of their fates turn out to be trapped and compelled by urges beyond their control. They are attractive but flawed, and corrupt at a level so basic that no amount of absolution can cleanse them of their sins. Lana Turner is so magnetically attractive that it is easy to see why John Garfield's character is so quick to fall under her charms and into her arms. Garfield does a capable job of portraying his character's basic moral neutrality: he will do what has to be done, not because it is right or wrong, but simply because it is what must be done. The Macbeth-like plotting of the lovers leads to the predictable recriminations and double-crosses. Even in noir, evil is punished. Eventually. Sort of. The passions that drive the couple to murder are the same fates that manipulated Macbeth, but, in both cases, the characters must pay a price for their weaknesses. The relentless intensity of the Turner-Garfield relationship has rarely been matched on screen. The taut script by Harry Ruskin was based on the novel by noir-meister James M. Cain (Double Indemnity Mildred Pierce), and director Tay Garnett carefully evokes all the conventions of the genre without expanding them.

All Movie Guide - Dan Jardine