Product description

The Postman Always Rings Twice [DVD] [1946] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Price: £7.76
Average customer rating: 4.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780790785899
ISBN : 0790785889
Label : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Release date : 2004-01-06
Title : The Postman Always Rings Twice [DVD] [1946] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actor : Array
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Original release date : 1946-01-01
Region code : 1
Running time : 113
Studio : Warner Home Video
Theatrical releaseDate : 1946-05-02
MPN : 012569585829

Customer reviews

review by: starlighthotel date: 2005-08-15 rating:

Kisses With Dreams in Them....
Lana Turner and John Garfield hunger for something more in Tay Garnett's glossy soap opera noir, The Postman Always Rings Twice. Based on James M. Cain's lusty potboiler, Turner is fantastic as the manipulative yet vulnerable Cora Smith and Garfield excellent as the drifter who can't get Cora or her dreams out of his blood. Turner is like a white creme, icy cold on the surface but burning hot and deep with desire underneath. pCora is a girl aware of her looks and effect on men. Since she was 14 she's had to argue with men about it. But she didn't have to argue with Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway), a much older man Cora marries for security, not love. When drifter Frank Chambers (Grafield) shows up to fill the help wanted sign at the Twin Oaks Diner Nick and Cora run, she discovers she can't live without love or passion. pCora is a smouldering vision in white when Frank first sees her, a room full of gas that only needs a spark to ignite. Frank knows he can sell anything to anybody and begins to fan the flames when he talks Nick into getting a neon sign for the diner Cora wants. Cora has big dreams for the diner and wants to be somebody. She tries in her own way to resist what is going to happen between she and Frank but deep down knows that all the things she married Nick for and clings to are the things she really wants with Frank. pCora lets him kiss her once then stays away, working Frank into an internal frenzy of desire. After a midnight swim in the ocean they get a week alone and their fate is sealed, the gas ignited and burning out of control. It is Cora who lets Frank's lust simmer until he loves her and wants her so much nothing matters, not even what stands in the way of them and Cora's dreams. pGarfield is excellent as a guy who knows he's signed on for a one way ride to nowhere but can't help himself, because the mere thought of sharing the ride with Cora tips the scales. There is a tricky D.A. (Leon Ames) onto them after a botched first attempt to live out Cora's dreams fails and only a crafty defense attorney, portrayed with zeal by Hume Cronyn, gets Cora off when they finally succeed. But an insurance policy Frank didn't know about causes distrust and the results are Cora and Frank on the outs again. pBut they are chained to each other. Jealousy and a blackmail attempt gone awry bring them back to the beach where they were happy. A dangerous swim to prove their trust in each other restores their love and they are happy and dreaming once again. They may be able to atone for their sins even, unless fate has other plans.... pTurner gives an icy hot performance here, with many long takes between she and Garfield as they are drawn to each other like moths to a flame. Much is made of director Tay Garnett framing Turner in sexy white outfits throughout the film. Her best scene, however, and the one in which she is the most strikinginly beautiful, she is dressed in a black bathrobe. Cora is in the kitchen caressing a knife and agonizing over her dreams and what needs to be done to make them come true. When Frank walks in on her, her voice catches, her reluctance to follow through real. She tells Garfield in a quivering voice, "If you really loved me." pWheras Wilder's Double Indemnity was a dark noir of twisted passion and greed set in Claifornia, Garnett's The Postman Always Rings Twice uses the bright sunshine and beaches of L.A. County in the 1940's to create a soap opera noir, a shining blonde Turner and a reluctant drifter Garfield at its center. A must for Turner fans and good pick for fans of this genre who want to watch a glossy noir.

review by: date: 2004-02-22 rating:

Stylish film noir
For a representation of a non-restored movie this new 'Postman Always Rings Twice' does not do too badly. There are dirt and specs in the pictures, but you are nevertheless gradually sucked into James M. Cain's morally ambivalent, eminently stylish noir universe. John Garfield adds nuance to nuance in a truly classic good guy / bad guy portrayal of the average joe who's got the hots for the boss' wife, a platinum blonde Lana Turner. The ending of the film is deeply ironical and typical, quintessential film noir. Included in the DVD presentation is a brilliant, one-hour long documentary about Garfield who died at the age of 1939 in 1952, huntet and black-listed by the paranoid McCarthy Committee.

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