Capsule/Summary ****
Tay Garnett’s cinematic adaptation of the steamy James M. Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice survives a light coating of MGM gloss and some necessary Production Code navigation to emerge as one of the definitive post-war film noirs. It is presented on Blu-ray disc with a transfer that applies a lot of TLC to what appear to have been difficult elements. All of the significant extras from the previous DVD release are carried over inclusive of an hour long profile of John Garfield, an introduction by Film Historian Richard Jewell, and the film’s trailer. On top of this, Warner has added the feature length TCM documentary Lana Turner ... A Daughter's Memoir, a radio adaptation of the film starring Garfield and Turner, a vintage MGM short from the Crime Does Not Pay series, and Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood, one of the greatest cartoons of all time.
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Directed By: Tay Garnett
Starring: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn, Leon Ames, Audrey Totter, Alan Reed, Jeff York
Studio: Warner Bros.
Year: 1946
Rated: NR
Film Length: 113 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), and Portuguese
Release Date: November 13, 2012
The Film ****
The Postman Always Rings Twice adapts the steamy James M. Cain novel of the same name. The plot centers around a drifter named Frank Chambers (Garfield) who hitches into town and is hired as a jack of all trades by amiable diner owner Nick Smith. Frank is never one to stay in one place for too long, but quickly develops an unhealthy interest in Nick’s much younger wife, Cora (Turner). Initially resistant, Cora eventually reciprocates and begins scheming in concert with Nick about ways to remove her husband from the picture. As complications ensue, they cross paths with a nosy District Attorney (Ames), a slick defense lawyer (Cronyn), and a corrupt private detective (Reed).
In 1946, MGM was the last studio anyone would think to jump on the postwar bandwagon of stylish, morally ambiguous crime potboilers that would come to be known as film noir. While MGM films from earlier in the 1940s such as A Woman’s Face definitely had noirish overtones, they could at least be described as the types of melodramas that were comfortably within the MGM under Louis B. Mayer wheelhouse. Presumably, Mayer was aware of the success of the similarly plotted Double Indemnity at Universal and of longtime MGM contract player Joan Crawford’s Mildred Pierce at Warner Bros.. Whether either of these influenced his decision to finally schedule production of the film for which MGM had held the American film rights for a dozen years is anyone’s guess, but thankfully for fans of crime cinema, he let this one be made under the MGM shingle.
Writers and filmmakers had been wrestling with how to adapt Cain’s 1934 novel into a film that could conform to the strict Motion Picture Production code for more than a decade. In fact, two separate European adaptations of the novel had been made into films prior to MGM and director Tay Garnett finally giving it the Hollywood treatment. The solution that finally worked was to borrow capable tough guy actor John Garfield from Warner Bros., keep the nastier elements discretely off screen, and cast sex incarnate circa 1946 Lana Turner in the lead female role.
Garfield and Turner, who reportedly did not get along well during the film’s production, proved a white hot combination on the screen. Turner, who had been more or less typecast as the “sweater girl”, seizes her first real opportunity to play a meaty leading role and gives a sly modulated performance revealing Cora’s layers of neediness and amorality gradually as the film progresses, peaking in intensity as jealousy and betrayal enter into the picture. The film won both actors terrific reviews and changed the direction of Turner’s career for the better.
As strong as the lead performances are, the supporting cast is filled with character actors in roles one would love to see as the lead characters in their own movies (not unlike Alan Arkin and John Goodman in the recent Argo). A series of films continuing the verbal sparring between Leon Ames’ pushy District Attorney and Hume Cronyn’s slicker than linoleum defense attorney would have likely sold a lot of popcorn. Similarly, Alan Reed’s clumsy blackmailer and Jeff York’s cat-obsessed motorcycle cop are a joy to behold. Cecil Kellaway as the cuckolded murder target plays his part, which is significantly changed from the novel, as such an endearing sap, that he could make Ralph Bellamy look like Clark Gable.
The film is nearly torpedoed by a moralizing coda in which one of the main characters goes off on a monologue of self-reflection that is so “on-the-nose” that it could cause nasal bleeding in casual viewers. Accepting that this was likely added at the insistence of censors, what goes before it is sufficiently amoral and black-hearted to qualify it as one of the best film noirs of the genre’s post-war golden age.
The Video ***½
This 1080p AVC-encoding is windowboxed to the film’s original academy ratio of approximately 1.37:1. This is a significant upgrade over the previous DVD release of the film on a number of fronts. First and foremost, the high definition encode allows for appropriate resolution of the grainy source element without any significant compression artifacts or need for high frequency filtering. Secondly, quite a bit of effort appears to have been put into repairing damage that was evident on the earlier release, particularly on the first couple of reels of the film. On the negative side of the ledger is the aforementioned grainy source element. It is unlikely that any part of the source element used for this presentation was within two generations of the original negative. Grain is coarse throughout, to the point that it sometimes appears to cause pulsing contrast, particularly on the opticals. By way of example, the scene where Turner is first introduced features a medium close-up that was turned into a close-up via field enlargement. The generational dupe loss and the increase in grain size wreak havoc with the image, but no more than they would on an actual print of the film. Given that the negative is likely lost to the dustbin of history (or perhaps more specifically: the ashes of the George Eastman House fire), the folks at Warner appear to have done an admirable job of creating a detailed, film-like, and consistent presentation from available materials.
The Audio **½
The film's sound mix is provided courtesy of a DTS-HD MA lossless mono encoding. The source is clearly an optical track which has been cleaned up in the digital domain. Dynamic range is limited, high frequencies roll off quickly, and there is occasional harsh sibilance, but it sounds like an honest rendering of a limited source element. Noise reduction artifacts will be noticeable to critical listeners, but they are not heavy to the point of distraction. Alternate Dolby Digital mono audio tracks are available in French, German, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), and Portuguese.
The Extras ***½
All of the special features from the 2003 DVD release are carried over except for a “Behind the Scenes Image Gallery” (which is a tough loss since you can never have too many stills of Lana Turner in revealing outfits), and the trailer for the 1981 Bob Rafelson remake (which was supposed to receive a concurrent Blu-ray release, but has since been delayed). All of the features are presented in standard definition video with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Special features that are added for this Blu-ray release are indicated below with an asterisk. All of the special features save for the theatrical trailer are inexplicably grouped under a menu heading of “Behind the Story”.
Introduction by Richard Jewell (5:04) was recorded in 2003 for the SD DVD release of the film. Film Historian and USC Professor of Critical Studies Jewell provides a brief overview of the film, its cast, and Tay Garnett. This is worth watching after having seen the film, but is a bit spoilery for an introduction.
Lana Turner ... A Daughter's Memoir* (86 min) is a feature length 2001 TCM-produced biographical piece on Lana Turner from the perspective of her daughter, Cheryl Crane. Directed by Carole Langer and narrated by Robert Wagner, this was previously available on the 2002 SD DVD release of The Bad and the Beautiful. The documentary touches lightly on some of the more controversial chapters in Turners life, as one would expect from a documentary with family involvement, but to its credit, it does not whitewash or ignore these elements altogether. The infamous incident in which daughter Cheryl Crane stabbed and killed Turner’s gangster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato is discussed and even dramatically re-enacted. Interview participants include Cheryl Crane, Publicist Irving Fine, 1937 MGM Drama Coach Lillian Burns, Actor Robert Stack, Friend of Turner Evie Wynn Johnson, Actor Jackie Cooper, Makeup Artist Del Armstrong, Actor Kirk Douglas, Publicist Glenn Rose, and Actress Juanita Moore.
The John Garfield Story (57:43) is a 2003 TCM-produced documentary feature about Garfield directed by David Heeley. It is narrated by his daughter, Julie Garfield. It follows his life and career from his lower East Side Manhattan childhood through to his untimely death at the age of 39. On screen comments come from actors Richard Dreyfuss, Lee Grant, Joanne Woodward, Harvey Keitel, Danny Glover, James Cromwell, Hume Cronyn, Norman Lloyd, and Patricia Neal. Viewers also hear from Author/Film Historian Robert Sklar, Director Martin Scorsese, Drama School Friend Michael Coppola, Ellen Adler (Daughter of Actress/Teacher Stella Adler), Group Theater Actress Phoebe Brand, and Actor/Friend Joe Bernard.
Phantoms, Inc.* (16:44) is a vintage MGM short from the Crime Does Not Pay series that dramatizes the exploits and eventual undoing of a confidence man who preys on families suffering through War-related tragedies.
Red Hot Riding Hood* (7:15) is a vintage MGM cartoon that tells the Red Riding Hood story the "new" Tex Avery way. This is an all time classic cartoon and a welcome addition to the disc.
6/16/1947 Screen Guild Theater Broadcast* (audio only - 28:51) is a radio adaptation of the film starring Garfield and Turner.
Theatrical Trailer (2:30) This is a lengthy and very spoilery trailer. Do not watch unless you are already familiar with the film.
Packaging
The disc is enclosed in a standard Blu-ray case with no inserts. The cover image is a colorized representation of a promotional still rather than the theatrical poster art.
Tay Garnett’s cinematic adaptation of the steamy James M. Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice survives a light coating of MGM gloss and some necessary Production Code navigation to emerge as one of the definitive post-war film noirs. It is presented on Blu-ray disc with a transfer that applies a lot of TLC to what appear to have been difficult elements. All of the significant extras from the previous DVD release are carried over inclusive of an hour long profile of John Garfield, an introduction by Film Historian Richard Jewell, and the film’s trailer. On top of this, Warner has added the feature length TCM documentary Lana Turner ... A Daughter's Memoir, a radio adaptation of the film starring Garfield and Turner, a vintage MGM short from the Crime Does Not Pay series, and Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood, one of the greatest cartoons of all time.
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Directed By: Tay Garnett
Starring: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn, Leon Ames, Audrey Totter, Alan Reed, Jeff York
Studio: Warner Bros.
Year: 1946
Rated: NR
Film Length: 113 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), and Portuguese
Release Date: November 13, 2012
The Film ****
The Postman Always Rings Twice adapts the steamy James M. Cain novel of the same name. The plot centers around a drifter named Frank Chambers (Garfield) who hitches into town and is hired as a jack of all trades by amiable diner owner Nick Smith. Frank is never one to stay in one place for too long, but quickly develops an unhealthy interest in Nick’s much younger wife, Cora (Turner). Initially resistant, Cora eventually reciprocates and begins scheming in concert with Nick about ways to remove her husband from the picture. As complications ensue, they cross paths with a nosy District Attorney (Ames), a slick defense lawyer (Cronyn), and a corrupt private detective (Reed).
In 1946, MGM was the last studio anyone would think to jump on the postwar bandwagon of stylish, morally ambiguous crime potboilers that would come to be known as film noir. While MGM films from earlier in the 1940s such as A Woman’s Face definitely had noirish overtones, they could at least be described as the types of melodramas that were comfortably within the MGM under Louis B. Mayer wheelhouse. Presumably, Mayer was aware of the success of the similarly plotted Double Indemnity at Universal and of longtime MGM contract player Joan Crawford’s Mildred Pierce at Warner Bros.. Whether either of these influenced his decision to finally schedule production of the film for which MGM had held the American film rights for a dozen years is anyone’s guess, but thankfully for fans of crime cinema, he let this one be made under the MGM shingle.
Writers and filmmakers had been wrestling with how to adapt Cain’s 1934 novel into a film that could conform to the strict Motion Picture Production code for more than a decade. In fact, two separate European adaptations of the novel had been made into films prior to MGM and director Tay Garnett finally giving it the Hollywood treatment. The solution that finally worked was to borrow capable tough guy actor John Garfield from Warner Bros., keep the nastier elements discretely off screen, and cast sex incarnate circa 1946 Lana Turner in the lead female role.
Garfield and Turner, who reportedly did not get along well during the film’s production, proved a white hot combination on the screen. Turner, who had been more or less typecast as the “sweater girl”, seizes her first real opportunity to play a meaty leading role and gives a sly modulated performance revealing Cora’s layers of neediness and amorality gradually as the film progresses, peaking in intensity as jealousy and betrayal enter into the picture. The film won both actors terrific reviews and changed the direction of Turner’s career for the better.
As strong as the lead performances are, the supporting cast is filled with character actors in roles one would love to see as the lead characters in their own movies (not unlike Alan Arkin and John Goodman in the recent Argo). A series of films continuing the verbal sparring between Leon Ames’ pushy District Attorney and Hume Cronyn’s slicker than linoleum defense attorney would have likely sold a lot of popcorn. Similarly, Alan Reed’s clumsy blackmailer and Jeff York’s cat-obsessed motorcycle cop are a joy to behold. Cecil Kellaway as the cuckolded murder target plays his part, which is significantly changed from the novel, as such an endearing sap, that he could make Ralph Bellamy look like Clark Gable.
The film is nearly torpedoed by a moralizing coda in which one of the main characters goes off on a monologue of self-reflection that is so “on-the-nose” that it could cause nasal bleeding in casual viewers. Accepting that this was likely added at the insistence of censors, what goes before it is sufficiently amoral and black-hearted to qualify it as one of the best film noirs of the genre’s post-war golden age.
The Video ***½
This 1080p AVC-encoding is windowboxed to the film’s original academy ratio of approximately 1.37:1. This is a significant upgrade over the previous DVD release of the film on a number of fronts. First and foremost, the high definition encode allows for appropriate resolution of the grainy source element without any significant compression artifacts or need for high frequency filtering. Secondly, quite a bit of effort appears to have been put into repairing damage that was evident on the earlier release, particularly on the first couple of reels of the film. On the negative side of the ledger is the aforementioned grainy source element. It is unlikely that any part of the source element used for this presentation was within two generations of the original negative. Grain is coarse throughout, to the point that it sometimes appears to cause pulsing contrast, particularly on the opticals. By way of example, the scene where Turner is first introduced features a medium close-up that was turned into a close-up via field enlargement. The generational dupe loss and the increase in grain size wreak havoc with the image, but no more than they would on an actual print of the film. Given that the negative is likely lost to the dustbin of history (or perhaps more specifically: the ashes of the George Eastman House fire), the folks at Warner appear to have done an admirable job of creating a detailed, film-like, and consistent presentation from available materials.
The Audio **½
The film's sound mix is provided courtesy of a DTS-HD MA lossless mono encoding. The source is clearly an optical track which has been cleaned up in the digital domain. Dynamic range is limited, high frequencies roll off quickly, and there is occasional harsh sibilance, but it sounds like an honest rendering of a limited source element. Noise reduction artifacts will be noticeable to critical listeners, but they are not heavy to the point of distraction. Alternate Dolby Digital mono audio tracks are available in French, German, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), and Portuguese.
The Extras ***½
All of the special features from the 2003 DVD release are carried over except for a “Behind the Scenes Image Gallery” (which is a tough loss since you can never have too many stills of Lana Turner in revealing outfits), and the trailer for the 1981 Bob Rafelson remake (which was supposed to receive a concurrent Blu-ray release, but has since been delayed). All of the features are presented in standard definition video with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Special features that are added for this Blu-ray release are indicated below with an asterisk. All of the special features save for the theatrical trailer are inexplicably grouped under a menu heading of “Behind the Story”.
Introduction by Richard Jewell (5:04) was recorded in 2003 for the SD DVD release of the film. Film Historian and USC Professor of Critical Studies Jewell provides a brief overview of the film, its cast, and Tay Garnett. This is worth watching after having seen the film, but is a bit spoilery for an introduction.
Lana Turner ... A Daughter's Memoir* (86 min) is a feature length 2001 TCM-produced biographical piece on Lana Turner from the perspective of her daughter, Cheryl Crane. Directed by Carole Langer and narrated by Robert Wagner, this was previously available on the 2002 SD DVD release of The Bad and the Beautiful. The documentary touches lightly on some of the more controversial chapters in Turners life, as one would expect from a documentary with family involvement, but to its credit, it does not whitewash or ignore these elements altogether. The infamous incident in which daughter Cheryl Crane stabbed and killed Turner’s gangster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato is discussed and even dramatically re-enacted. Interview participants include Cheryl Crane, Publicist Irving Fine, 1937 MGM Drama Coach Lillian Burns, Actor Robert Stack, Friend of Turner Evie Wynn Johnson, Actor Jackie Cooper, Makeup Artist Del Armstrong, Actor Kirk Douglas, Publicist Glenn Rose, and Actress Juanita Moore.
The John Garfield Story (57:43) is a 2003 TCM-produced documentary feature about Garfield directed by David Heeley. It is narrated by his daughter, Julie Garfield. It follows his life and career from his lower East Side Manhattan childhood through to his untimely death at the age of 39. On screen comments come from actors Richard Dreyfuss, Lee Grant, Joanne Woodward, Harvey Keitel, Danny Glover, James Cromwell, Hume Cronyn, Norman Lloyd, and Patricia Neal. Viewers also hear from Author/Film Historian Robert Sklar, Director Martin Scorsese, Drama School Friend Michael Coppola, Ellen Adler (Daughter of Actress/Teacher Stella Adler), Group Theater Actress Phoebe Brand, and Actor/Friend Joe Bernard.
Phantoms, Inc.* (16:44) is a vintage MGM short from the Crime Does Not Pay series that dramatizes the exploits and eventual undoing of a confidence man who preys on families suffering through War-related tragedies.
Red Hot Riding Hood* (7:15) is a vintage MGM cartoon that tells the Red Riding Hood story the "new" Tex Avery way. This is an all time classic cartoon and a welcome addition to the disc.
6/16/1947 Screen Guild Theater Broadcast* (audio only - 28:51) is a radio adaptation of the film starring Garfield and Turner.
Theatrical Trailer (2:30) This is a lengthy and very spoilery trailer. Do not watch unless you are already familiar with the film.
Packaging
The disc is enclosed in a standard Blu-ray case with no inserts. The cover image is a colorized representation of a promotional still rather than the theatrical poster art.
