But these plans never work out as they should and a freak accident intervenes, which causes Nick’s near-death, but also raises the suspicions of the local law enforcement, including the D.A. When his brush with death and some family changes cause Nick to decide to sell the diner to the highest bidder and take Cora to Canada to care for his bedridden sister, Frank and Cora realize they must act quickly or all will be lost. They succeed in murdering poor Nick and making it look like a car accident, but a wily witness has their number and before long, both find themselves on trial for murder. At first, Cora sees her hotshot attorney, Arthur Keats (Hume Cronyn) as her savior, but before long, she realizes he is a double-crossing snake who has manipulated her into turning on Frank. Can these star-crossed, but damned lovers ever truly find happiness? Fate always comes back to cash in her chips.
While this is a classic drama, it is clearly a little tame and slow for this day and age, although for it’s time, Lana Turner was a scorching sexpot. She and Garfield have decent chemistry on screen and I enjoyed the directing style. The Postman Always Rings Twice has been cleaned up a good deal and makes the transfer to Blu-ray quite nicely and it has an interesting, but odd, selection of special features. There’s an Introduction by Richard Jewell, a 90-minute featurette called Lana Turner… A Daughter’s Memoir, an hour-long featurette called The John Garfield Story, plus a short cautionary tale film called Phantoms, Inc., a vintage Tex Avery cartoon called Red Hot Riding Hood, the theatrical trailer and the Screen Guild Theater Broadcast of the radio drama of The Postman Always Rings Twice, starring Turner and Garfield reprising their roles. I really enjoyed the featurette on Lana Turner, as I learned so much about her that I never knew. The tragic tale of John Garfield was interesting as well, just not as scandalous as Turner’s personal story. The rest of the features were okay, but seemed more tacked on due to the lack of extras available for such an old film.
Overall, The Postman Always Rings Twice is definitely not for everyone, but it's one of those classics that will appeal to those who love a bit of the old film noir in their library.
