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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