Film Review: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)

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(Edited)

(source: tmdb.org)

The Postman Always Rings Twice, 1934 novel by American author James M. Cain, has a distinction of serving as basis for three very different films that are, for different reasons, interpreted as milestones in cinema history. 1943 film Ossessione by Luchino Visconti is often viewed as the first work of Italian neorealist movement. 1946 Classic Hollywood adaptation, starring Lana Turner and John Garfield, is considered to be one of the iconic film noirs. Finally, 1981 remake, directed by Bob Rafelson, is sometimes seen as the first of erotic thrillers in modern Hollywood.

The plot is set during Great Depression, and the protagonist, played by Jack Nicholson, is Frank Chambers, a drifter who travels America in search of work. He ends in a diner owned by old Greek immigrant Nick Papakadis (played by John Colicos). When he can’t pay for the meal he offers to work, and the offer is accepted. While working, he can’t help by notice Cora Smith (played by Jessica Lange), Nick’s beautiful and much younger wife. Two of them are immediately attracted to each other and start a torrid love affair. Cora is unhappy in her marriage to relatively well-off, but old and boring man and dreams of starting a new life without losing the diner. She and Frank begin plotting to kill Nick and stage the murder as an accident in order to collect insurance money. The plan, after initial unsuccessful attempt, works but the authorities get suspicious and both lovers are arrested, with prosecutors trying to manipulate them against each other.

This film is best known for a single scene in which Frank and Cora succumb to their passion and have sex on the kitchen table. It is played with such intensity that it created rumours about Nicholson and Lange not playing the characters during the shooting and that they instead actually had sex. The rumour, denied by everyone involved in the production, created some controversy and a lot of free publicity that helped the film at the box office. The scene, on the other hand, proved to be a double-edged sword, because everything in the film that happens before and after it looks banal, unremarkable and forgettable in comparison. This isn’t fault of the cast, which did very good job. Nicholson is reliable as ever and Lange finally redeems herself for her unfortunate debut in King Kong five years earlier and proves that she is a serious and capable actress and not just a pretty face. Even some of the supporting cast are good, most notably John Colicos playing the only character the audience could have sympathies for. Main problem for film is Rafelson’s uninspired direction, that doesn’t seem to use cinematography of veteran Sven Nykvist properly and creates some problems with the pacing, especially in the second part when the simple hard boiled plot transforms into complicated legal manoeuvrings. The ending, although faithful for Cain’s novel, is disappointing and non-cathartic. The Postman Always Rings Twice was perhaps the first modern erotic thriller in Hollywood, but in comparison with Body Heat and other classics of the genre, it looks like its only achievement.

RATING: 4/10 (++)

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