The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Better Late Then Never

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

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.

I hadn't seen this movie is years when I decided to watch it again tonight. Frankly, it wasn't as good as I remember. It starts and stops and then starts again, especially after the lead couple murders Nick. (The movie goes on a LONG time after the couple murder Nick.) There are lots of things that don't make any real sense, either, such as the public defender's reasons for acting the way he does. What is good, though, indeed very good, is the presentation of Lana Turner's character. Few women have been presented as sexier while wearing their clothes. From the very moment we see her, it is clear that she is willing to seduce any good looking guy, even if that gets him in trouble. She appears to have no morals. John Garfield's character is more ambiguous, but then the whole movie is supposedly his confession to a priest, so it would stand to reason that he might try to paint himself in a better light and shift the blame for their behavior to Turner's character.Watch this for Turner, and the chemistry between her and Garfield. The less attention you pay to the plot, the less its weaknesses will bother you.

I know that I'm not supposed to ask questions, and I know it was 1946, and Hollywood was playing with Film Noir, but there was just too much about this movie that made me want to yell "STOP ALREADY!!!"Yes, Lana Turner is absolutely breathtaking. She's so sexy in all of those white outfits, and those beautiful eyes and lips. Very sensuous.But do they really expect someone like her to fall for Cecil Kellaway and try to make it believable for the audience? And I'm sorry, but I just never thought that John Garfield was ever that good.Throughout watching this film all I could think of was how it reminded me of "Double Indemnity" (which in my opinion is a much better film, in every aspect).And the moral of the story about the postman? Ridiculous.Don't waste your time with this one, no matter what you read about it.

This film noir has Lana Turner as Cora, the naive wife of a much older roadside café owner, clashing with Frank, a drifter, played by John Garfield, who rolls into town and gets a job at the diner. The two begin a flaming romance and eventually plot the murder of Cora's husband, with insurmountable ramifications.Although not perhaps the most realistic or gritty noir, "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is memorable for two reasons: first, because it was perhaps the first instance in which MGM sweater girl Lana Turner was truly able to cut her teeth; and second, its atmosphere is explosively provocative and quietly dazzling.Shadowy and slow burning, the film moves between worlds as Cora and Frank become a singular threat to Nick, and their fate unravels and splinters into a dramatic finale. Based on the book by James N. Cain (who also wrote "Double Indemnity"), "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is less talkier than a lot of noir, but constructs a languid atmosphere and is rife with dramatic (if not always entirely believable) characters. Turner lights up the screen as perhaps the most glamorous waitress of all time, and John Garfield has a great chemistry with her on screen. Moody cinematography bolstered with closeups and subtle stylistic touches accentuate the general mood of the picture.Overall, this is a fantastic noir, but it's not Mickey Spillane or anything of the like; it's a bit more leisurely and the stakes don't feel as grave as they do in other noir of the era, but the performances and dreary atmosphere that lurks in every scene make this worth the while. Lana Turner's vixenish take as the naive-turned-evil waitress is worth the price of admission alone. I'd describe the film as a weird collision of major studio gloss with the gritty tropes of noir, which, while some people may not find it that appealing, I personally enjoyed the dichotomy. 8/10.