The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)

Truly Dreadful Film

Great Film overall

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I have not yet seen the original but definitely planning on it so as to make sense of whatever happened in this film. An extremely uninteresting couple of unrealistic characters, with no arc, nothing to distinguish them other than a woman in love, and an ambigiously untrustworthy man. The abstract plot, apart from this film, is undeniably exciting. However, as a film, it does not work out to be remotely gripping. From moment to moment: the film jumps without rhythm through its plot points in an almost tangental and inconsequential fashion. It becomes clear from the immediate and unexplainable first sex scene that this film does not care for pacing nor its characters. Frank and Cora interact laboriously, with sparse and insignificant light-weight dialogue that fails to 'flesh them out'. Production design, acting and cinematography are all at par or better, but suffers in every other direction.

Drifter Frank Chambers (Jack Nicholson) decides to stay and get a job from gas station owner Nick Papadakis (John Colicos) when he sees Nick's wife Cora (Jessica Lange). Cora is tired of her marriage and convinces Frank to kill Nick. After some failures and hesitations, they finally succeed. The prosecutor tries Cora and use tricks to pit her against Frank. Defense attorney Mr. Katz (Michael Lerner) is able to use tricks to get an acquittal.I find their relationship careening between love and hate too jarring. While I like the two leads, they have trouble maintaining the chemistry. The movie is trying to stuff a lot in. I can't blame it all on the movie for trying to cram the novel into the two hour movie. At times, the movie feels too abrupt. There is one major change for the ending that actually makes it less poetic.

I have not seen the "original" from 1946 but anyway - I am not into black-and-white movies, with the exception of those with Chaplin and Lloyd perhaps. Thus, I decided to watch the one in question, besides, Jack Nicholson (as Frank Chambers) and Jessica Lange (as Cora Smith/Papadakis) are much more known and admired by me than John Garfield and Lana Turner... Their performances were really good (although not among their best), they had sizzling mutual chemistry, but it seems that the topic/script has become timeworn, seen at present as a rather trivial crime thriller, as the main theme - lovers trying to get rid of (rich) husband - has been exploited a lot. The plot does not run smoothly and the inclusion of e.g. Anjelica Huston as Madge Gorland did not provide any additional value; on the other hand, bigger inclusion of past history of the protagonists could have been interesting. The ending was also too abrupt and when the end credits appeared, one could feel confusion about the meaning of the title.

It's easy to understand how attractive it must have seemed to make a 1980s movie of "The Postman Always Rings Twice". James M Cain's famous depression-era melodrama had already been successful as a book (1934) and a movie (1946) and a 1980s version could obviously benefit from the advantages of being made in colour and at a time when censorship constraints would be far less strict than they had been in 1946. The result is a production in which this story of lust, adultery, murder, blackmail and "the hand of fate" is told in a style which is far more raw, gritty and explicit than the 1946 movie.Frank Chambers (Jack Nicholson) is a drifter who stops for a meal at a remote countryside diner / filling station somewhere outside L.A. and decides to stay a little longer after catching sight of the establishment's attractive cook called Cora (Jessica Lange). Cora's the wife of Nick (John Colicos) who's the considerably older Greek proprietor of the business. Nick offers Frank a job as a mechanic and soon Cora and Frank are involved in a passionate affair.After the couple fail in an attempt to run away together, they decide to murder Nick. They succeed at the second attempt but soon Cora is put on trial for the crime. The prosecuting attorney succeeds in getting Frank to betray Cora but some slick work by her lawyer results in her being acquitted. After the trial, Frank and Cora resume their relationship and a succession of surprising developments culminate in a tragic conclusion.Frank is a man whose misfortunes don't simply emanate from his weakness or the consequences of making a wrong turn in his life. He's a violent, petty criminal who's driven by lust, but nevertheless, seems more in control of his destiny than is typical of a noir protagonist. In this version of the story, in an interpretation which is probably more realistic, he's more cynical and brutal than John Garfield's 1946 incarnation and as a result is a far more unsympathetic character.Jessica Lange's Cora is also different from Lana Turner's as she seems much too strong and spirited to be as trapped as she claims and also doesn't have the kind of mystique or ambiguity which makes it seem credible that she could've been harbouring dark thoughts about killing Nick for some time.The ways in which the characters of Frank and Cora have been changed is interesting to watch but the same can't be said of the changed ending which lacks both the irony of the original and its significance to the story's title.This movie is strong on atmosphere and intensity and convincingly evokes the period in which the action is set. Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange are excellent in their roles and the supporting cast (particularly John Colicos) is also very good.