The Postman Always Rings Twice ***** (1981, Jack Nicholson, Jessica Lange, John Colicos) – Classic Movie Review 745

Bob Rafelson’s 1981 neo-noir erotic thriller film The Postman Always Rings Twice marks David Mamet’s screenwriting debut. Jack Nicholson stars as seedy drifter Frank Chambers and Jessica Lange teams up with him as sultry diner waitress Cora. 

The 1981 American neo-noir erotic thriller film The Postman Always Rings Twice is written by playwright David Mamet in his screenwriting debut. Jack Nicholson stars as seedy punk drifter Frank Chambers and Jessica Lange teams up with him as sultry and seductive lunch wagon waitress Cora Papadakis, in director Bob Rafelson’s startlingly steamy 1981 reworking of the classic hardboiled 1934 James M Cain pulp thriller novel The Postman Always Rings Twice.

What’s in a name? Cora Papadakis not the plain, ordinary Cora Smith of the Lana Turner 1946 film The Postman Always Rings Twice. Well, Lana Turner herself was hardly plain and ordinary in the 1946 film. It is one of her most sizzling appearances, and Jessica Lange has strong competition,

Chambers turns up on Cora’s roadside restaurant doorstep and her older, violent Greek husband, café proprietor NickPapadakis (John Colicos), hires Frank as a handyman. Cora and Frank instantly fall madly for each other in a heat of passion and begin a torrid affair. Soon Cora talks Frank into murdering Nick and the wicked, obsessed duo plot to kill him in an ‘accident’ and then live happily ever after.

It is the fourth movie of James M Cain’s gritty, hardboiled thriller novel, which was first filmed as Le Dernier Tournant in 1939, then as Ossessione in 1942 and then again in Hollywood in 1946 as The Postman Always Rings Twice with Lana Turner and John Garfield.

This red-hot 1981 version is immensely powerful, strong adult stuff, with sordidly lusty sexual situations, even in the toned-down, specially prepared TV version showing on British television (which should of course be avoided, especially when it is interspersed with endless adverts on ITV). The actors, director Rafelson, screenwriter David Mamet, cinematographer Sven Nykvist, production designer George Jenkins are all class acts and all on top form, working on what is obviously a labour of love.

Nicholson and Lange are perfectly cast, in their glorious prime, and just superb. Again, as in 1946, it motors as much on the magnetic playing of the two stars as Cain’s cleverly written story.

Glenn Shadix makes his film debut as a Twin Oaks customer. Also in the cast are John Colicos, Michael Lerner, John P Ryan, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, William Traylor, Tom Hill, John Van Ness, Brian Farrell, Raleigh Bond, William Newman, Albert Henderson, Ken Magee, Eugene Peterson, Don Calfa, Elsa Raven, and Brion James.

The film was shot in Santa Barbara, California.

It wasn’t till 2012 that Michael Small’s complete score was released for the first time (by Intrada Records).

Nicholson recalled: ‘If you ran a question through this industry about The Postman Always Rings Twice, most people would surmise that it wasn’t successful. That is not true. I know it made money, because I received overages, so it must’ve grossed about as much as Chinatown and much more than Carnal Knowledge. But people are anxious to disqualify it.’ He’s right. It made money. The budget was $12 million and it took $44.2 million at the box office. Yet the The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) with Lana Turner and John Garfield is still the best known of the film adaptations.

Lana Turner said that advertisements for it on TV made her sick and that she resented how it was ‘turned into such pornographic trash’. She did not watch the remake.

The Postman Always Rings Twice is directed by Bob Rafelson, runs 123 minutes, is made Production companies Lorimar Productions, Northstar International and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, is distributed by Paramount Pictures, is written by David Mamet, based on novel by James M Cain, is produced by Bob Rafelson and Charles Mulvehill, is shot by Sven Nykvist, and is scored by Michael Small.

Release date: March 20, 1981.

The cast are Jack Nicholson as Frank Chambers, Jessica Lange as Cora Papadakis, John Colicos as Nick Papadakis, Michael Lerner as Mr Katz, John P Ryan as Ezra Liam Kennedy, Anjelica Huston as Madge Gorland, William Traylor as Kyle Sackett, Ron Flagge as Shoeshine Man, William Newman as Man from Home Town, Chuck Liddell as Boy Scout, Albert Henderson as Art Beeman, Christopher Lloyd as Salesman, and William Traylor, Tom Hill, John Van Ness, Brian Farrell, Raleigh Bond, William Newman, Albert Henderson, Ken Magee, Eugene Peterson, Don Calfa, Elsa Raven, and Brion James.

Cain wrote in the preface to his 1943 crime novel Double Indemnity that the title of The Postman Always Rings Twice came from talking to screenwriter Vincent Lawrence, who mentioned his anxiety waiting for the postman to bring him news on a submitted manuscript, but he would know when the postman had finally arrived because he always rang twice. Cain decided to use the phrase as the title for his novel as a result of their conversation. The two men agreed the phrase suited Frank’s situation at the end of the novel as a metaphor, with the ‘postman’ being God or inescapable fate.

Dorothy Parker: ‘To me it ‘s a love story and that’s all it is’.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 745

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