The Postman Always Rings Twice

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The quality that appeals to me most about The Postman Always Rings Twice (aside from the terrific title, which has no correlation to the story and might've simply been something Cain overheard and thought would look good in print) is how harrowing it is. Set during the Great Depression, the story reflects a time when young men hit the road with no idea where their next meal would come from and young women were trapped in marriages they could no more walk out on than they could become tramps themselves. Living moment to moment, desperately, anything can happen. A masterful wordsmith, Cain puts the reader right there.

Hoopes, Roy. 1981. The Baby in the Icebox and Other Short Fiction by James M. Cain. Holt, Rinehart & Winston. New York. ISBN 0-03058501-5 The Postman Always Rings Twice may be lurid and pulpy, yes, but it is by no means lowbrow. On the surface it’s a campy, titillating noir full of sex and murder, but it also serves up some pretty savage existentialism and social commentary.

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The Postman Always Rings Twice, a play adapted by Andrew Rattenbury, directed by Lucy Bailey and starring Val Kilmer The novel also spawned a few films, notably the 1946 adaptation that stands out as an early example of film noir, in both good ways and bad. The film captures the greed, lust and penchant for violence that fill the book, but there were changes that were more to do with the film industry, which Cain disliked, than the book. Cora for example, is more of a manipulator for its own purpose than in the book. Lost is the desperation that explains her actions without justifying them. The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1946 American film noir directed by Tay Garnett and starring Lana Turner, John Garfield, and Cecil Kellaway. It is based on the 1934 novel of the same name by James M. Cain. [3] This adaptation of the novel also features Hume Cronyn, Leon Ames and Audrey Totter. The musical score was written by George Bassman and Erich Zeisl (the latter uncredited). [4] Although Cain spent many years in Hollywood working on screenplays, his name only appears on the credits of three films, Algiers, Stand Up and Fight, and Gypsy Wildcat.

This 1930s hardboiled crime novel is told from the perspective of a young tramp with a criminal record who enters into an affair with a femme fatale, resulting in them scheming to kill her husband. It's astounding how much fun this book is: Cain effectively employs the tropes of the genre and plays with them, as we slowly learn about the outcome of the story from the criminal himself. What's also unusual for the genre is that the text can be interpreted as having a morale, namely that in the long run, people cannot escape the consequences of their actions (which could also be the meaning of the title, because make no mistake, there is no postman in this story!).

I want to hate them for the crime they committed. But I could not. Why is it that? It maybe the author. He made us feel their desperation nd the curse of poverty. They are torturing themselves and each other. MacMillan Moser, Stephen. The Austin Chronicle, film/video review, December 29, 2000. Last accessed: January 9, 2008. The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1934 crime novel by American writer James M. Cain. The novel was successful and notorious upon publication. It is considered one of the most outstanding crime novels of the 20th century. The novel's mix of sexuality and violence was startling in its time and caused it to be banned in Boston. [1] What a hard hitting book. I have no words to describe how I felt throughout and after finishing it. However the climax was sort of pre determined and I wished something like that happened. No doubt it was sad but it was fitting. You can call it poetic justice.