MovieChat Forums > The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) Discussion > The Poastman... Over rated?

The Poastman... Over rated?

posted 9 years ago by steven_torrey
3 replies | jump to latest

Jan 2, 2016--KQED featured "Dial M for Murder" with "The Postman Always Rings Twice." Ray Milland's performance was picture perfect of evil personified. So smooth, so glib, so reasonable, so distant... I never tire of seeing "Dial M..."

On the other hand: "The Postman..." seemed tiresome. I'm good for another ten years before I see it again. There was nothing terribly wrong about the movie, just nothing that captured this viewer in the way "Dial M..." or "Double Indemnity", or so many other 40s noir B films now available on YouTube...

Lana Turner and Hume Cronyn gave admirable performances... But that was not sufficient to raise the film from ho-hum.

[–] thepooles-1 9 years ago

I agree- My wife and I saw Postman for the first time last night (we did not see the remake). It seemed desperately contrived and stagey. If our parents watched and absorbed such crap it could explain why they lived such whacky lives. The last scene where Garfield talks to the priest, "Father, could you arrange for us to be together -wherever that may be….My own sister says our father (deceased) isn't ready for our mother yet. He's been dead since 1999 and also she reminds me that she isn't sure whether he "made it" (to heaven I assume).
She isn't even caucasing in Iowa. Religious insanity explains alot and this film opened our eyes and may explain why America today is so *beep* up.

[–] gbennett5 8 years ago

Disagree - the film is a classic, and doesn't seem "stagy" at all. The script
is solid, and the performances - including Turner's - are topnotch.

[–] Spod-3 8 years ago

I completely agree. It seemed completely melodramatic and over-the-top, along the lines of Days of our Lives. The courtroom scenes were just ludicrous. I saw this on the big screen along with a Hitchcock which was on a completely different and better level. Lana Turner's role is the best thing in the film, but she can't carry it along with such awful dialogue and almost campy scenes.