Postman Always Rings Twice

The Postman Always Rings Twice is a romance that is filled with drama. Nick and Cora, owners of the Twin Oaks, had a wanderer come into their life named Frank. Frank was always running from the world but once he saw Cora, he was settled. They shortly started a secret romance that proved hard to resist for both of them. Once they decided they were going to be together, they created a plan to do so, which involved the killing of Cora’s husband Nick. After all was said and done, the couple ended up together, in an unfortunate place.
Cora Smith wanted to become something big but didn’t have the resources to do so herself. Everyone that saw Cora desired her for her overwhelming beauty and she was sick of people looking at her in such a shallow way. To leave the situation as fast as she possible could, she married at her young age to Nick. He was the one man that offered her a chance to a better, more exciting, life than the one given to her. Cora is the typical small town girl that wants expensive material items and to live larger than her wildest dreams.
The Postman Always Rings Twice started to develop a good back-story to the characters. Surprisingly, I felt as if I really knew the character lives before coming to the restaurant. Many times Frank stated he was a traveler, “They keep itchin' for me to go places.” The back-story of Cora was revealed in a deep conversation between Frank and her. The conversation was so personal that it was like she never told anyone what she had truly thought before. She went on by telling Frank that she was tried of men always wanting her as a trophy and looking with bad intentions. For the first time she was asked for her hand and it allowed her to leave the town, she did. Franks and Cora’s stories didn’t seem to have any place for a whirlwind romance in them, until Frank showed up to the restaurant that day.
Frank and Cora work so well together because they want the same thing in life, to make it big. Even though their stories aren’t the same, they still want the same outcome. (Grouping)
The authorities were suspicious of Frank for the death of the Nick from the very beginning. They figured that he had something to with it because when Nick got hurt from his “accident”, Cora and Frank became every close, a little too close. Everything was fine until Nick came home from the hospital, then it was back to sneaking around. People could sense the stress from Nick and caused them to be suspicious.
All black and white films have dramatic setting enhancers/features. The dramatic enhancer that stood out the most was the lighting. For example, when Cora was expressing her history with men, the room became dim and lighting turned to Cora. The darker lighting makes the viewer assume that Cora’s experience with past men was a negative one. The lighting variations throughout the movie aids in setting the mood for certain scenes such as the one previously stated. The Postman Always Rings Twice is a black and white film, meaning it has dramatic setting enhancers/features.
Throughout this process, I learned the most about the dramatic features. I wasn’t aware that they use lighting to make scenes more dramatic. The scene of the Cora explaining her back-story was just one scene I mentioned where this was apparent. Studying the movie again made me realized how many scenes where the lighting adds to the dramatic feel of the situation.
The Postman Always rings twice is a classic black and white film that dares to feature adultery, murder, and evading the law, these features made this movie a dramatic romance. It touches on what really goes on in the minds of adultery and what happened when those thoughts are executed.