The Postman Always Rings Twice

Long before Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange rearranged the flour on the kitchen table in Bob Rafelson's "steamy" 1981 remake, John Garfield and Lana Turner were able to raise temperatures with just a look in Tay Garnett's definitive filming of James M. Cain's bestselling novel. Garfield plays Frank Chambers, a drifter who stops at a roadside cafe in California, and is offered a job as a handyman by the ebullient owner; an offer which he is inclined to decline until the owner's wife Cora (Lana Turner) sashays past. Frank not only stays on, and has an affair with Cora, he also helps her develop a plan for knocking off the old man. The pair get him drunk, and take him for a nocturnal car ride, where Frank cold cocks the husband with a bottle, but doesn't manage to get himself out of the car before it goes over a cliff. When he comes to in a hospital bed, Frank learns that Cora spilled the beans…leading to more twists and turns. A knockout that runs circles around the remake in every respect, this 1946 classic debuts on DVD in a handsome transfer, and features a five-minute introduction by USC film professor Richard Jewell, as well as an excellent hour-long Turner Classic Movies documentary The John Garfield Story, narrated by Garfield's daughter Julie. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)[Blu-ray Review—Nov. 20, 2012—Warner, 113 min., not rated, $19.98—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1946's The Postman Always Rings Twice features a fine transfer and a DTS-HD mono soundtrack. Extras include the TCM productions “Lana Turner…A Daughter's Memoir,” which is a 2001 retrospective documentary featuring Turner's daughter Cheryl Crane (87 min.), and 2003's “The John Garfield Story” (58 min.), as well as the 1945 short film “Phantoms, Inc.” (17 min.), the 1943 cartoon short “Red Hot Riding Hood” (7 min.), an introduction by film historian Richard Jewell (5 min.), the audio-only 1947 Screen Guild Theater broadcast, and trailers. Bottom line: an excellent Blu-ray debut for this noir classic.]