The Postman Always Rings Twice - 1981

So sorry I ever went to see this POS.

"The Postman Always Rings Twice" was directed by Nicholson's friend, Bob Rafelson, one of the key players in the New Hollywood movement of American cinema in the 1960s-70s. New Hollywood directors were influenced largely by the French new wave and Italian neorealism, Japanese samurai films, and Ingmar Bergman. Naturally, with its plodding storyline, gratuitous sex scene, and downbeat ending, TPART became a bigger hit in Europe than in the US.

🕵 [italic] The Postman Always Comes Twice ......

Why did they cut the framing device of Frank being charged for killing Cora? It was clever

I loved it. The slow and atmospheric feel of it - like real life. I'm a huge fan of French and Swedish films - I guess there have been some others - Italian, some kind of eastern European. I got into them in college in Gainesville Florida where they had a theater called the Hippodrome that showed Euro films all the time.

I know it's a goofy theory but I really think if American filmakers had stuck with that, and the serious Godfather and Dog Day Afternoon type themes, somehow the country would be less gullible. The blockbusters, Star Wars, ET, Marvel... all that shit has dumbed us down imo. Films were more sophisticated in the 1940s for god sake.

Oh well, it is what it is, but I hate Spielberg and Howard a LOT.

Oh I meant to say that I think I remember when the "end" happened -- within a couple of years, both Jaws and Star Wars came out. And thus ended adult films. Just dammit. (I'm sure there were a few ok ones after, but the shock-and-awe a minute experience was the new go to. (and the more action, apparently the more tickets sold in China and India because who needs to understand the dialogue when things are flashing and blowing up (or big fish are stalking teenagers)

Who is Howard?

Ron Howard

Did Lana Turner go flying out the car door in the original too?

The 1940s original is far more superior and involving than the 1980s vile porn version, although Jessica Lange was indeed beyond gorgeous.

Lange Loon Thread

R11 not at all, I created the similar thread on Double Indemnity

R12 Don’t mind R11; its DLs resident retard.

Lange is exquisite in this.

Stop posting

Include it all in one thread

R14 include all what in one thread exactly? My other thread about Double Indemnity?

If the previous threads on this movie hadn't been closed I wouldn't have needed to create a new one

R9, does that sound like something they would do to Lana Turner? He’ll, no. In the original, the car crashes, and there’s a shot of her lifeless hand as it falls, dropping a tube of lipstick.

Jack Nicholson's stardom is something I will never understand.

Anyone else feel this movie was too long?

The original movie was so much better.

R18 I think he's kind of, uh, interesting. He seems to have something going on between his ears, unlike most actors. He has to, considering he's so ordinary looking.

"He seems to have something going on between his ears,"

Yea, like "how do I sexually assault any woman I come into contact with and avoid prosecution?"

The original with Turner and Garfield is far sexier despite having no crotch shots. Nicholson looks repulsive in this one.

Yeah I get that some might find him attractive but I felt Jessica's character hadn't traded up much from her unattractive husband by allowing Jack to pummel her pussy. A sexier leading man and script that doesn't leave out key details, plus cutting the crap post-murder scenes would have made it much stronger.

Tale as old as time.

R24 It's hard to feel the heat when the leading man looks like a homeless person. Same token, De Niro in New York New York. Not a homeless person but so repulsively written and performed it makes it impossible to buy into the love story.

When I saw it I thought Lang and Nicholson were really fucking.

When Jack was going down on her, I saw pubic hair. I was like, is this real? 😳

This is sweet. From IMDb:

When auditions for this movie were taking place, director Bob Rafelson wrote the name of the actress he thought should be cast as Cora Papadakis and put it inside a sealed envelope. Several months later, Rafelson gave the letter to Jessica Lange, whose name was inside.

I think the postman ringing twice was that Cora died just when Frank thought they would be happy together.

The original was so much better. Lana Turner was no one's idea of a great actress, but she was perfect for this, bullet bra tits and all. Lange was hopelessly miscast.

Lange was not miscast. You can totally see her as a sexually frustrated housewife stuck in a mismatched marriage and driven to murder. The movie sticks closely to James M. Cain's novel and has more of a European sensibility (and with Sven Nykvist behind the camera!), which translates to American audiences as overly long and ponderous. It's only 123 minutes, but there are scenes that seem to go on forever.

Lange was not bad for the part but Nicholson was either miscast or misdirected or both.

And yes R28, you did see public hair.

The editor of this film, Graeme Clifford, would go on to immediately cast Lange in Frances, which he directed. So it worked out well for her.

[quote]I think the postman ringing twice was that Cora died just when Frank thought they would be happy together.

Justice worked after the second try.

Lange was a dead ringer for Frances Farmer.

Lana Turner did not watch the remake, but said she had seen advertisements and blurbs on television that made her sick: she resented how the studio "turned it into such pornographic trash".

Meryl Streep rejected the part of Cora.

R38, that's what Meryl says, but Jessica had been on Jack Nicholson's mind since she auditioned for "Goin' South."

If you want the true ending, read the fucking book. It's great. The Garfield/Turner version is not true to the end of the book but they are so hot together, all is forgiven.

Another thing the old version is superior at is the production design, the costumes and the cinematography. The newer version has that horrible 80's grainy, washed-out brownish look that makes films look like crap. Lana Turner's white costumes in the '42 version are a triumph.

'46, sorry ^^^

Even though many considered one of Lana Turner’s best performances, I don’t agree. Lana is one of my all time favorite actresses but I’ve seen many better performances from her during that period in her career, like THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL for example.

As I said before, "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1981) was an A+ tier production, with Bob Rafelson at the helm; Jack Nicholson leading the cast; Ingmar Bergman's cameraman, Sven Nykvist handling the cinematography; screenplay by David Mamet, based on the James M. Cain novel. But it was a critical flop.

Five months after its US release, another neo-noir erotic thriller outperformed and outclassed it-- "Body Heat," which basically came out of no-where with its neophyte or little-known cast and crew.

I watched this recently with my partner, who’d never seen it. He really disliked it, especially the abrupt ending.

One thing I didn’t get was the scene where Jack’s character goes down to LA to visit Angelica Huston playing a gypsy fortune teller or whatever in a carnival. The scene seemed to have nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Am I missing something?

R44, that was the point where the movie seemed to drag on endlessly. The Jessica character leaves town to visit her mother and Jack goes to LA and carries on with Anjelica Huston. There was no point to this exercise other than to give Jack's real life girlfriend a part.

R45, in the 1946 version, Frank spots a woman in a parking lot. She notices; they flirt; and they’re off for a few weeks together. It’s wonderfully casual, and shows that if he wanted to Frank could leave Cora and never look back. But he doesn’t want that; he wants Cora. It’s fate.

R47 I think the movie would have been stronger if the ending wasn't drawn out, the last part felt aimless. Then the damp squib ending of Cora dying without the framing device that Frank is wrongly charged with her murder.

The sex isn’t sexy.

The whole concept of Jessica Lange being attracted to Jack Nicholson, who looks like a homeless person in this movie, is ridiculous.

The sex is revolting actually.

Lana's specialty was non-pornographic trash.

Yeah Jack is actually what spoils it for me. They needed a sexy actor more on Jessica's par

Early 80s Sam Shepard would have been a much better choice.

Frances didn't have a "Sam Shepard", unfortunately.

R50, her character was stuck in rural California, married to an old fat Greek slob who smacked her ass around and treated her like his prize possession. Any man who came around would've been a catch compared to her husband. This concept worked for me because, like Bonnie Parker in Bonnie & Clyde, she was bored out of her mind in rural America and got a dangerous kick with the new drifter in town.

Shitty movie. Don’t waste your time.

I hardly remember anything about the Turner Garfield version, but the 1981 Nicholson Lange version used to play on cable a lot when I was a teen in the early 80s. It’s not a shitty movie, but you have to enjoy these actors and their films I think, and it’s worth at least one viewing. After the husband is killed it goes off the rails a bit, and I found it convoluted, when it didn’t have to be that way. If anything, you get to see Lange blossom into this great actress, and the next year she cleaned up with Frances Tootsie and her Oscar win.

[quote]Lana's specialty was non-pornographic trash.

And that's why some of us love Lana, because of glorious trash like "Imitation of Life" and "Madame X."

R41, disagree, I thought it had excellent period atmosphere, the costumes and cinematography (by legend Sven Nykvist) were great. Lana's white costume was striking but didn't suit her character at all - she's supposed to be working-class, not a glamourpuss

R60 the working class can still be glamourous on a budget!

R60, the two films are shot in different genres. The 1946 Postman is a film noir. It's not meant to be "realistic." Lana's Cora IS a bombshell, not just some dame in a restaurant; she's meant to seem impossibly desirable, deceptively sincere and untouchable. The noir style is perfect for the dark, intense novel. It's not a story about people struggling in the 1930s, it's about obsession and death. The 1981 film is a beautifully crafted period drama, but it doesn't suit the material.

It was brave of Frank to give Cora's knickers such a deep sniffing. I doubt penny-pincher Nick stretched to a drum washer..

Well I just finished the 1946 version and found it much more enjoyable than the 1981 update. Clearer in plot, less meandering, fantastic noir qualities and no yucky shagging.

Even better: No yucky Jack Nicholson.

According to Cherly Crane Lana Turner didn't think Garfield was attractive.

Sorry that opinion came from Lana's friend Evie Wynn Johnson.

Her usual makeup man Del Amstrong was drafted so Lana did her own makeup for the film.

The ending of the remake is hokey nonsense complete with Jessica spinning out of the door and Frank pretending to care

R66: She ultimately had an affair with Garfield so she got over that first impression. Certainly, on screen, he exuded sex.

The 1981 version is not "classic film noir."

It is derivative neo-noir that veers from the noir code exemplified by the Lana Turner and John Garfield "Postman" of 1946.

Cameron Mitchell was originally cast with Lana in Postman. He was under contract to the studio at the time (MGM) and was an unknown up-and-comer, but then Garfield became available. The following year he played a smallish supporting role in Cass Timberlane (starring Lana and Spencer Tracy). He didn't really make it until he was in Death Of A Salesman on Broadway.

Cameron Mitchell was just as sexy or even sexier than Garfield. He would have been a good choice for Frank but Garfield was the better actor.

Garfield also just had more weight as an actor, and more star quality. Mitchell was closer in age to Lana by a few years, and they were supposed to be young lovers (in the book), but then Garfield was only in his early 30s.

I’m a John Garfield fan. Thought he was a great actor and there was a rough trade sexiness to him. Shame he died young and not long after his career got going.