TCM's Film Noir of the Week for Sunday, December 17, at 10 a.m. ET is the Original, Red-Hot Version of James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), Starring John Garfield and Lana Turner

 

 

By David in TN
Friday, December 15, 2017 at 6:33:00 P.M. EST
 

 

TCM's Film Noir of the Week for Sunday, December 17, at 10 am ET is The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). This version of James M. Cain's novel is perhaps most notable for pairing John Garfield and Lana Turner.
 

John Garfield, Hume Cronyn, and Lana Turner 

Garfield plays a drifter who happens upon a diner just outside of Los Angeles. The proprietor (Cecil Kellaway) offers him a job. Garfield's "itchy feet" make him inclined to turn the job down until he sees the owner's (much younger) sexy blond wife, whereupon he hires on.
 

Audrey Totter 

The doomed lovers soon hatch a plan to dispose of the oblivious Kellaway and run off together. This is the prototype Noir plot line. The protagonist spots the sexiest woman he's ever seen and self-destructs. Hume Cronyn has a supporting role as a conniving defense lawyer who gets them off. At first.
 

Leon Ames 

 

Turner is always dressed in white.
 

Director Tay Garnett with Turner and Garfield 

Our host, Eddie Muller, says The Postman Always Rings Twice was John Garfield's biggest box office hit. Along with Body and Soul (1947), one of his most famous.