The Postman Always Rings Twice

Tay Garnett
1946

This sprawling pseudo film noir classic suffers strongly from "novel adapted to movie" syndrome and thus seems too ambitious, with a story covering too great a time period for a non epic.

Drifter John Garfield comes across a burger stand and decides to say when he sees that ice-cream-blonde Lana Turner comes with the place. The only things standing in the way of their love are Garfield's poverty and Turner's clueless alcoholic oaf of a husband. Of course, murder becomes the only option to justify the illicit affair in pre-divorce times, and after a couple botched attempts on hubby's life the couple finally gets it right. But if there's anything you can count on the studio system to promote it's that crime may be glamorous but it certainly doesn't pay.

Its almost worth it to see Lana Turner as the femme fatale, and John Garfield is definitely a personal favorite noir actor of mine. The first two thirds of the picture are a little too flat and predictable, and for my money "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is a poor combination of noirs "Gun Crazy" and "Double Indemnity." The picture's only real treats are Hume Cronyn's clever and benevolent lawyer, the electrocution of a cat, and the awkward and merciless procession of plot twists in the last 20 minutes. Its as if Garnett wanted to make up for the lumbering, sprawling set up by plugging doozy after doozy in an effort to blow the audience's mind. The effort is mighty entertaining, but fails to make the film any better.

Review By Brett A. Scieszka