Review of The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) by Veronique K — 31 Mar 2008

"postman always rings twice" is an essential film noir classic directed by tay garnett who also handles the 30s gable/harlow "china seas"...this flick foundamentalizes lana turner's femme fatale icon as the dangerous blonde whose beauty catalyzes death and corruption, and this time her romantic steer john garfield is her willing thug whose resourcefulness emulates her charm.

Garfield plays frank chamber, who is an aloof vagabond with a persistant living philosophy of emancipation which means he's reluctant to get restrained by anything or anyone and always on the anxiety to run when his feet get itches to go to places, briefly a rebel of temporality. chamber could manage himself fine until he encounters the cool insouciant bombshell who happens to be his new employer's wife whose shrewd individuality could rival his, and the moment he sees her carelessly awaiting him to pick up her lipstick then implictly command him to bring it forth, he's determinated to conquer this woman of lofty pride.

Turner would be cora smith, married to an elder obsese kind-faced resteraunt-owner nick smith, who is mindless enough to neglect his young wife. eventually chamber filtrates into her heart with gradual convictions of his wits. so to seek an outlet without costing her future ease, cora persuades frank into murdering nick...it fails..then nick intends to sell the store and demands his young wife to sacrifice her youth attending his paralyzed bed-ridden sister, so they co-scheme to murder nick for a second time. somehow karma has its own deployment to serve the justice right even god has to ring twice for them to get the message.

"postman always rings twice" is a success of dialogue-driven drama which vitalizes the whole movie, and also the comic sense of absurdity is another cynic pleasure for the noir fonders, such as the scenrios of cat getting electrified to fail the murder, chamber suing cora in panic, the bet between district attorney and lawyer and the falsified confession...etc. lots of plot twists to relish your taste of sarcastic mockery. further, the two leads are written with an empathetic affinity to the audience. there's no absolute evil in them but momentary volunerability of human flaws.

There's also some moral dubicity in the leads which titilates the audience: first of all, frank and cora do it for the sake of love, and they're naive enough to believe in it. besides cora does attempt to resist chamber but her sappy husband nick is foolish enough to encourage her to dance with chamber along the juke box...chamber does hesitate to slaughter nick but the desperation of love veers him forward. chamber is an asserted loner surrenders to the fatal love of blonde bombshell. so the man is not wimpishly weak and the woman is not devilishly heartless to fit into the noir stereotype of feminine guile and effeminate strengthlessness.

Another peculiar trait to emphasize its moral relativism is lana turner's wardrobe which is all purgatorily white-colored which is to brighten or to contrast the gloomy aroma of murder and destruction...it's like insidious con lurking beneath the seemingly innocent surface, a lily blossomed thru a sinful rot of adultery. at the particular scene when cora lures frank into murdering nick, turner's eyebrows raise unevenly as the ominous sign which is an accomplishment of the cosmetic department. most of all, the characters of cora and frank do possess some ingenuine childlikeness and the chesmistry of good timing to confront the crooked blackmail, man beats the con, woman swift enough to point a gun as defence...a perfect screen team.

The best adavantage of "postman always rings twice" would its justified moral lesson without being moralistically preachy, and the leads are convingingly degenerated characters of likability without the contrived harshness which populates in this gendre of film noir.