Jessica Lange

(In French, On Cable TV, July 2019) After watching both the 1946 and 1981 versions of The Postman Always Rings Twice back-to-back, I feel as if I’ve been handed a quick course on the importance of style. More faithfully adapting James M. Cain’s novel to the big screen (including going back to its depression-era setting), this 1981 version ironically feels more dated and less respectable than the noir-era version. That’s an important clue as to the enduring popularity of noir—by discussing distasteful topics of murder and sex in a restrained, even glamorous style, noir now often exists out of time as a style of its own, to be appreciated by audiences at all periods. (Also useful to compare: Double Indemnity and Body Heat, another pair of noir and remake released along a nearly identical timeframe.)  Also, Jessica Lange isn’t Lana Turner, but then again only Lana Turner was Lana Turner. But, back to the 1981 version: Jack Nicholson portrays the qualities of the remake—he’s humourless, gritty, disreputable. There is a lot more detail to this version, and the rough eroticism is played up in ways that would have been unthinkable back in the 1940s. The feral cat subplot of the novel is back (featuring none other than Anjelica Huston), the lead character is far more criminal than drifter, and the entire thing is far more cinematic (by modern standards) than the previous one. It does, mind you, make for a decently entertaining watch, perhaps closer to an erotic thriller than to generic crime fiction. But for all of its realism, polish, harshness and style, this version of The Postman Always Rings Twice just can’t quite measure to the deliberate approach of the 1946 version.