Re: RARA-AVIS: Postman Always Rings Twice

James Rogers (jetan@ionet.net)
Thu, 3 Sep 1998 21:06:08 -0500 (CDT) At 03:41 PM 9/3/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Great story, I thought -- darker and tougher than _Double
>Indemnity_. (But as someone pointed out, the _Double Indemnity_
>screenplay was spectacularly good.) Very nice stuff with the
>insurance scam; I especially liked the lawyer's triumph at how
>cleverly he had "played his cards".
>
>One question, though: What does the title mean? Unless I
>dozed off or something, there's nothing in the story about a
>postman ringing even once.
>
>-- Fr. John Woolley
>
>
I have read the accepted explanation of the title, perhaps by Cain,
somewhere. I will try to find it. However it is obviously a reference to the
two murder accusations.
I love the book. The similar _Double Indemnity_ has a more ingenious
murder, and picks up points for the completely surreal ending. but TPART is
first and is seemignly one of those times that an author finds his whole
voice from the get-go. This is a very imitated book...certainly wouldn't
have a flick like _Body Heat_ without it....but it is also very influential
on those who had too much of their own gig going to drectly cop it's theme.
I don't think we would have a Jim Thompson or a Willeford without Cain
blazing the trail here. Probably not a McCoy or an Ellroy either. Maybe
someone else did these novels of an unrepentant, unapologetic killer before,
but I can't think of one. Nowadays the idea has, of course, been done to
death. but it must have been shockingly fresh when it first came out and I
still find Cain's compassionate handling of it very compelling. In fact I
think he is better than Thompson in developing the reade3r's identification
with the killer and in teasing out the hopes that the killer will somehow
get away with it.....while at the same time emphasising the innocence of the
victim. Hard trick. Then too, he was one of the first, if not the first, of
the writers in the genre for whom irony was not just an occassional effect
but the penultimate effect that the book aimed for.
I wish that I liked the film _Double Indemnity_ more. I am a very big
fan of Chandler's novels but I find his screenplays quite unsatisfactory.
perhaps the fact that I loathe Fred MacMurray enters into it as well.

James
James Michael Rogers
jetan@ionet.net
Mundus Vult Decipi

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