The Postman Always Rings Twice

  

The Postman Always Rings Twice.  John Garfield and Lana Turner co-star in this 1946 film adaptation of James M. Cain’s classic crime novel. Garfield plays a drifter who stops at a roadside diner with a “Man Wanted” sign. He discovers that the sign has a double meaning. Lana Turner makes one of the great entrances in film history. 113 minutes. CC.

Years ago, I thought that there was little chemistry, sexual or otherwise, between Garfield and Turner but the more I view this film the more I like it, as well as the performances of the two stars. Garfield was at his best and Turner never looked or acted better.

The fine supporting  cast included Cecil Kellaway as Turner's naive and hapless husband, Leon Ames as a conniving district attorney, and Hume Cronyn who is especially good as a sleazy defense counsel. 

Eddie Muller's intro on TCM's Noir Alley  explains "Postman's" box office success as well as its influence on subsequent films. ###

John Garfield and Lana Turner

 

Body and Soul

Body and Soul:  John Garfield and Lili Palmer star in a 1947 film that became the prototype for all the great boxing films that followed. Anne Revere and William Conrad are featured in this film directed by Robert Rossen. The magnificent fight photography by the legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe puts the viewer right in the ring. 104 minutes. No captions.

 

                                          

 John Garfield won an Academy Award nomination for his performance as a boxer from New York City's slums who will do anything to rise to the top. Lilli Palmer and Anne Revere, as his girl friend and mother, should each have won Academy Awards for Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress, but neither was even nominated.

This film contains much social commentary. Garfield, Rossen, and screenwriter Abraham Polonsky were either Communists, or sympathetic to the social causes affirmed by post war Communists in Hollywood. Nevertheless, the story, the acting, and the cinematography are so good, that the timeless film transcends the old political back ground. This film was one of the first I ever saw as a child and I still vividly remember the opening scene as well as the thrilling ending.

Here is a link to a fourteen minute video on the career of cinematographer James Wong Howe. It is a lesson on what the cameraman adds to a film.

John Garfield and Lili Palmer

 

He Ran All the Way

  

                            

He Ran All the Way: John Garfield and Shelley Winters star in this hostage drama from 1951. Garfield, in his last movie before his untimely death at the age of 39, plays a hoodlum who takes a family hostage after a botched robbery.

Directed by John Berry, the film is more than a hostage drama. Garfield's young man lives in a loveless home with his nasty mother played by Gladys George, a leading lady in the 1930s who turned into a fine character actress toward the end of her career. His homelife is contrasted  with that of the loving family he takes hostage as he seeks refuge from the police. The family consists of a loving father and mother, their grown daughter, played by Winters, and a teen son. Veteran character actor Wallace Ford is excellent as the kind of father Garfield's character never knew. Inevitably, feelings grow between the hoodlum and the shy, backward daughter.

John Garfield and Shelley Winters

The film is shot in stark  black and white by the legendary cinematographer, James Wong Howe. The ending is especially well done. 78 minutes.

Eddie Muller, the creator of Noir Alley on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) usually provides introductions (intros) before each film as well as outros after the showing. Here is a link to his outro for this film with Garfield's real-life daughter. Or just watch the short video below.