Jack Nicholson Movie:

Editorial Review:
In The Postman Always Rings Twice, Jack Nicholson teamed up again with his Five Easy Pieces and King of Marvin Gardens director Bob Rafelson for this 1981 version of James M. Cain's hardboiled novel of lust and murder. This version takes a much grittier (and sexually explicit) approach to the material than the slick 1946 MGM version starring John Garfield and Lana Turner. Nicholson plays Frank Chambers, a drifter who happens upon a roadside diner run by Cora Papadakis (Jessica Lange) and her swarthy Greek husband, Nick (John Colicos). Sparks fly, and before you can say l'amour fou, Frank and Cora are making the beast with two backs on the kitchen table. One thing leads to another and they conspire to murder Nick. The movie is still a little too cold and distant to fully convey a hot-blooded passion that leads to murder, but it is a strangely haunting and disturbing film nevertheless. The screenplay is by David Mamet, the photography is by the great Sven Nykvist (Ingmar Bergman's cinematographer), and watch for Anjelica Huston in a supporting role. --Jim Emerson

The Postman Always Rings Twice [Region 2] Reviews:
The Postman Always Rings Twice
2009-02-20 - This is one of the greatest remakes of the 60's. The suspense, drama and a steamy scene between Jack and Jessica has to make this one of top 100 movies of all times. I have it on VHS and now DVD. Its a keeper

"No Need to Pre-Sift the Flour"
2008-12-26 - I had seen the Turner/Garfield version of this movie many times and was curious as to what modern film makers would make of it. Well, it is an entirely different spin on things. Both are doozies in their own right. No matter what you remember about this movie--and I am drawn to the diabolical plottings of human beings on paper or celluloid, the scene you will remember is the "table" scene. It was the first time I had seen anything that graphic on film, and it was superbly acted by Lange and Nicholson. There was also a wave of nostalgia for the costuming, so magnificently done, down to the hosiery in two parts, and the hats on the heads. Beautifully diabolical.

Not Cropped
2008-09-06 - I hated this film on first vewing because I was used to the John Garfield version and I felt the sex in this one was just too perverse, especially the scene immediately following the 'accident". The movie has really grown on me since then, though, and it has become one of my favorite "new" film noirs. As for the DVD being in full screen: it is indeed in full screen, but it is not cropped. Instead, the transfer shows information on the top and bottom which would have been masked off in the theater. You can see that this is so by looking closely at the trailer included on the disc. You can get the same framing as the trailer if you have a newer TV with an adjustable picture ratio (16x9 +1)

The Postman Always Rings Twice. Jack At His Best!
2008-06-16 - A movie you will want to watch over and over. Jack and Jessica Lange at their acting best. A drifter and a frustrated wife of a roadside diner owner. Set in the depression era, watch Jack and Jessica burst into flames on the screen.
A must see movie!

David Mamet's first screenplay
2008-05-03 - Frank Chambers (Jack Nicholson) is a con man and drifter who scams his way into the lives of Nick (John Colicos) and Cora (Jessica Lange). The two are married and work at a small diner which Nick owns. Cora is the cook. Nick falls victim to one of Frank's cons and offers him a job and let's him stay in a small guesthouse behind the diner. Frank is attracted to Cora and starts flirting with her but Cora resists his advances and repays him with nothing but disgust and contempt. Frank starts working as a mechanic at the auto shop next to the diner so that he can stay close to Cora. Nick trusts him and enjoys having him over to the house where the two men drink all night while a bored Cora watches. When Nick is called out of town on business Frank makes his move. He takes Cora to Chicago but she grows fearful and heads back home without him. Feeling rejected he doesn't pay her any attention when he gets back home and focuses on his job instead. She comes to him with a proposition to murder Nick. Frank isn't prepared for that and tells her" They hang people for that." Cora's motives are collecting Nick's size able life insurance and tells Frank that the two could take that money and run off together. After much convincing on Cora's part Frank consents and starts planning how they are going to do it. He decides that he will have Cora do it while he waits outside and acts as a lookout. Cora goes through with it but their plan doesn't work since Nick survives. When he gets out of the hospital his near death experience has made him a changed man. He takes a more active interest in his young wife and he keeps both her and Frank closer than before . After much waiting the two try again. The cops and the issuers of the life insurance policy are keeping a close watch on the two since they suspect foul play. The film is slow going in parts and it loses steam as it goes. Nicholson is great in the role of Frank and Lange makes for a very sexy wife. You believe that she could talk a man into murdering her husband for the chance to be with her. Colicos makes Nick a nice guy who you feel sympathetic for. Michael Lerner is fun as the lawyer who represents Frank and Cora when they are eventually brought to trial. Even Anjelica Huston, then Nicholson's significant other, has a brief part as a woman that Frank has an affair with. Perhaps since it is based on a book very little of Mamet's trademark dialogue is present. Mamet has detailed in interviews that director Bob Rafelson drastically changed his script. Mamet cites the first sex scene between Frank and Cora as the biggest example. The scene in the film is very violent and almost like a rape that Cora eventually consents to. The sex in this film is very erotic despite having very little nudity. It is a fair film that is of interest to fans of Nicholson, Lange, or Mamet.