The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.
Director:
Bob Rafelson
From metacritic.com
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Title: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
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Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Jack Nicholson | ... | Frank Chambers | |
| Jessica Lange | ... | Cora Papadakis | |
| John Colicos | ... | Nick Papadakis | |
| Michael Lerner | ... | Mr. Katz | |
| John P. Ryan | ... | Kennedy | |
| Anjelica Huston | ... | Madge | |
 |
William Traylor | ... | Sackett |
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Thomas Hill | ... | Barlow (as Tom Hill) |
| Jon Van Ness | ... | Motorcycle Cop | |
|
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Brian Farrell | ... | Mortenson |
|
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Raleigh Bond | ... | Insurance Salesman |
| William Newman | ... | Man from Home Town | |
|
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Albert Henderson | ... | Art Beeman |
|
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Ken Magee | ... | Scoutmaster |
|
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Eugene Peterson | ... | Doctor |
Edit
Plot Summary
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Add Synopsis
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Storyline
This remake of the 1946 movie of the same name accounts an affair between a seedy drifter and a seductive wife of a roadside café owner. This begins a chain of events that culminates in murder. Written by Craig Clarke <clarkec@topaz.cqu.edu.au>
Plot Keywords:
great depression | adultery | neo noir | lifting up dress | hand up dress |Taglines:
In the heat of passion two things can happen. The second is murder. See more »Parents Guide:
View content advisory »
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See full technical specs »
Details
Release Date:
20 March 1981 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
El cartero llama dos veces See more »Edit
Box Office
Budget:
$12,000,000 (estimated)Gross USA:
$12,376,625Cumulative Worldwide Gross:
$44,376,625Company Credits
Production Co:
CIP Filmproduktion GmbH,Lorimar Film Entertainment,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) See more »
Show more on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
MonoColor:
Color (Metrocolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1
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Frank Chambers: They hang people for that, Cora!
See more »
Did You Know?
Trivia
This is one of two film versions of Cain's novel that is now owned by Warner Brothers Entertainment, which acquired the film through its 1989 purchase of Lorimar. Warner Brothers also owns the 1946 MGM version, which was part of the pre-1986 MGM library acquired by Turner Entertainment in 1986 (which merged with Warner Brothers in 1996). MGM was responsible for the first video release of the 1981 version, through its joint venture with CBS, MGM/CBS Home Video, which held the video rights to Lorimar's library at the time. When CBS left the MGM joint venture (reorganized as MGM/UA Home Video) to team up with 20th Century Fox, it took the Lorimar video rights with them. See more »Goofs
(at around 1h 35 mins) When Cora walks to the door of the café after coming back from her mother's, her zipper and zipper pull show. What we see is an "invisible" zipper which were not invented until the early 1960's. See more »Quotes
Cora: I'm getting tired of what's right and wrong.Frank Chambers: They hang people for that, Cora!
See more »
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There are so many problems with this dull, listless filmization of the James M. Cain classic, where does one begin? Well, let's start from the beginning. It tries to compete with the great 1946 version. How do you top a film as brilliant as that? The answer is, you don't! Even if this new version does follow the original novel more closely, who cares? As the tragic, plotting lovers, Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson have absolutely no chemistry whatsoever, so they generate very little heat in their allegedly steamy sex scenes. It's as if the filmmakers were so aware of the miscasting that they tried to disguise this by making the sex scenes between the duo more erotic, meaning more explicit. BIG MISTAKE! This just makes the lack of chemistry even more painfully obvious, and the sex scenes rather silly. Despite having virtually nothing in common, Nicholson and Lange can't keep their hands off of each other and do a lot of huffing and puffing. They go at it like two wild animals in heat, but this does little to make the film any more watchable or entertaining. Yes, Lange is even more breathtakingly beautiful than usual, and she brings more intensity and depth to the role than the script really required. But, whether she knows it or not, Nicholson is a constant thorn in her side. Sure, Jack is a great actor too, but, even though his character is a plotting murderer, there was a romantic edge to the role when John Garfield played it in 1946, and Nicholson does not have one bit of that romanticism. I still kringe when I think of him as the love interest in TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. How did he ever get to be cast in parts like that? Stay as clear from this as possible and settle only for the untoppable original.