alr

The Postman Always Rings Twice

Screening on Film
Directed by Tay Garnett.
With Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway.
US, 1946, 35mm, black & white, 113 min.
Print source: Warner Bros

It took years before Hollywood was brave enough to adapt James M. Cain’s swift and sordid fable of adultery and murderous deceit, and Lucino Visconti was there first with his path-breaking Ossessione (1943). No less important, however, is Tay Garnett’s polished rendition, which gives an Edward Hopper sheen and ominous shadows to the roadside diner, an overdetermined and iconic symbol of Cain’s dark vision of desire and capitalism. John Garfield is the quintessential noir antihero, brimming with raw masculinity yet reduced to trembling flesh by the siren call, and rolling lipstick, of Lana Turner’s doe-eyed femme fatale.

Part of film series

Read more

Five O'Clock Shadow

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

The Reincarnations of Delphine Seyrig

Read more

Rosine Mbakam, 2025 McMillan-Stewart Fellow