The Postman Always Rings Twice
After my huge disappointment with Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man," I knew I could find the antidote with a re-read of James M. Cain's masterpiece, "The Postman Always Rings Twice." Thin is thin and noir is noir and Cain's first person novella stands out as the noirest of them all.
Since we know the perps from the beginning, this is never a whodunnit, not even a how-did-they-finally-get-caught mystery novel. This is Cain's search among the ruins of lust, betrayal, suspicion, confession, love and forgiveness that clutter two human hearts in love with each other before and after they kill another, rather generous human being.
Cain's portraits of Frank the drifter and Cora, the hash house waitress, are as finely etched as any one of Rembrandt's masterpieces that stare back at us from behind those riveting eyes, waiting to have a word with us after all these centuries.
Cain's story was inspired by the real-life murderers Ruth Snyder and her married lover, Judd Gray. They knocked off her husband Albert for his insurance money providing some bonus material that Cain would also use again in "Double Indemnity."
Mrs. Snyder's trial captivated the entire country. Gray testified that it took her seven attempts before she finally succeeded in killing Albert. Apparently, Albert was not a very suspicious sort of victim.
With all of the coast-to-coast publicity, Ruth Snyder would receive over a hundred marriage proposals before her execution in the electric chair that was stealthily captured by a New York Daily News photographer just as the current surged through her body. Her face had been masked to shield the finer people in attendance from any queasy, eye-popping memories. Front page stuff! The raw stuff that noir is made of! Adultery, money, murder and execution.
By the time "The Postman Always Rings Twice" was published, the American audience was properly primed and ready to shell out a little dough for this short read. Ruth Snyder's quivering body was still twitching in their minds and ever since its publication, this has been ranked at the top of the the noir totem pole. Rightly so. This is underclass literature at its finest rather than ordinary crime fiction.
I have seen both movies and much prefer the John Garfield version to the Jack Nicholson one. I hold the minority opinion that Nicholson, like John Wayne, is a one- dimensional actor basically playing himself in all of his roles. Nicholson's performance as Frank pales in comparison to Garfield and let us be honest here, Jessica Lange " just ain't no Lana Turner" whether she is playing Cora or anyone else.
Enjoy this masterpiece and then watch the 1946 movie.
Since we know the perps from the beginning, this is never a whodunnit, not even a how-did-they-finally-get-caught mystery novel. This is Cain's search among the ruins of lust, betrayal, suspicion, confession, love and forgiveness that clutter two human hearts in love with each other before and after they kill another, rather generous human being.
Cain's portraits of Frank the drifter and Cora, the hash house waitress, are as finely etched as any one of Rembrandt's masterpieces that stare back at us from behind those riveting eyes, waiting to have a word with us after all these centuries.
Cain's story was inspired by the real-life murderers Ruth Snyder and her married lover, Judd Gray. They knocked off her husband Albert for his insurance money providing some bonus material that Cain would also use again in "Double Indemnity."
Mrs. Snyder's trial captivated the entire country. Gray testified that it took her seven attempts before she finally succeeded in killing Albert. Apparently, Albert was not a very suspicious sort of victim.
With all of the coast-to-coast publicity, Ruth Snyder would receive over a hundred marriage proposals before her execution in the electric chair that was stealthily captured by a New York Daily News photographer just as the current surged through her body. Her face had been masked to shield the finer people in attendance from any queasy, eye-popping memories. Front page stuff! The raw stuff that noir is made of! Adultery, money, murder and execution.
By the time "The Postman Always Rings Twice" was published, the American audience was properly primed and ready to shell out a little dough for this short read. Ruth Snyder's quivering body was still twitching in their minds and ever since its publication, this has been ranked at the top of the the noir totem pole. Rightly so. This is underclass literature at its finest rather than ordinary crime fiction.
I have seen both movies and much prefer the John Garfield version to the Jack Nicholson one. I hold the minority opinion that Nicholson, like John Wayne, is a one- dimensional actor basically playing himself in all of his roles. Nicholson's performance as Frank pales in comparison to Garfield and let us be honest here, Jessica Lange " just ain't no Lana Turner" whether she is playing Cora or anyone else.
Enjoy this masterpiece and then watch the 1946 movie.
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