The Postman Always Rings Twice

Frank, a drifter who takes a job at a roadside diner, starts an affair with Cora, the owner's young wife. They decide to kill the husband, and the real matter begins after the murder: whether they can trust each other. The film is not interested in the crime. It is interested in the rotting of a partnership. Once two people share a secret, the secret is the only bond left between them, and the prosecution knows it and works to turn them against one another. The form leans not on noir's darkness but on its whiteness: Cora is always in white, the locations are sunlit, California is hot. The threat stands out in the open rather than in shadow. The delay in making it is a censorship story of its own. MGM bought the rights to James M. Cain's novel in 1934 but waited twelve years because the Production Code Administration considered the book unsuitable for the screen; the success of Double Indemnity in 1944 opened the door. Meanwhile Luchino Visconti adapted the novel without permission in 1943 as Ossessione, and because the rights were never cleared that film could not be shown outside Italy for thirty years. Tay Garnett directed. John Garfield plays Frank, Lana Turner plays Cora. Who it is for: viewers who want a noir classic and Lana Turner's best-known role. Who it is not for: readers looking for the hardness of the novel. Censorship keeps the sex and the violence largely at the level of implication.