A new writing segment, "Ten Items or Less" is an attempt to consciously cutback and restrict how much I write. I get ten sentences or less to discuss a movie. That's it. Let's see if some genius comes out of working around my self-made obstacle.
Some relationships burn so fast and so passionately that they're bound to implode, such is the case with Frank Chambers (John Gardfield) and Cora Smith (Lana Turner) in The Postman Always Rings Twice. Turner and Garfield have the kind of sizzling, immediately charged chemistry that's necessary for the gripping, sexy noir to work as well as it does. Turner and Garfield play it as if it was destiny that wandering, rootless Frank Chambers and the gorgeous, trapped Cora Smith ended up together and the film moves past their initial meeting -- a great moment that's all sexual tension and suggestion -- to deconstruct this, setting the couple down a path of escalating destruction and doubt. The great thing about the film though is that unlike most noirs, Turner's femme fatale appears to actually be in love with Garfield, making later double crosses and faded passion feel like a relationship turned sour in the worst way possible. The film's initial plot focuses on the couple hesitantly going forward with murdering Cora's husband, the meek but kind Nick (Cecil Kellaway), a man she married out of convenience but not love. But the the scheming, the false starts, and eventual execution of the plan are only about half the film's time. Soon comes the court case, with the vigilant, obsessive district attorney Kyle Sackett (Leon Ames) pressing the case as fiercely he can, only to be countered by rival lawyer Arthur Keats (in a great scene-stealing performance by Hume Croyn). The passion that initially drove the relationship proves to be unable to withstand not only the heated trouble, but also proves itself unlikely to have been sustainable no matter what the couple tried to do to keep it going. The Postman Always Rings Twice benefits from impeccable casting, particularly Turner and Garfield, who have some electrifying chemistry. You don't need nudity or sex when you have this sort of chemistry; sexual tension hangs over every moment as if it's another character.
Grade: ★★★★
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