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Blackout

“Their Love was a Flame that Destroyed!" John Garfield and Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice.

MGM, 1946.

foregrounded the noirantiheros psychology, guilt, and impending doom as a conseąuence of his crimes and uncontrollable obsessions—-thus rein-forcing a voice of morality throughout the film.

Publicity for The Postman Always Rings Twice featured Cain’s novel prominently as “The Book that Blazed to Best-Seller Famę!” and described the film as “Morę Sensational than ‘Double Indemnity!’ And by the same Best-Seller author!” MGM was indeed capitalizing on Cains growing rep-utation—and exploiting it. Advertising for the MGM film madę its Para-mount predecessor look tamę by comparison. MGM paid no homage to Breen’s ethical proscription for The Postman Always Rings Twice. Instead, Metro’s publicity featured Lana undressing to reveal a risque two-piece white bathśng suit (resembling a bra and underwear) with the caption,“You must be a she-devil... You couldn’t make me feel like this if you weren’t ...” along with “Their Love was a Flame that Destroyed!” And finally, “I had to have her love even if I hung for it!” Imdges included Garfield about to strangle (or caress) Turner. The press books salacious ad featured blonde, bare-shouldered Lana with a cigarette in her mouth as Garfield fires up his lighter, next to an insert where the black-garbed, gun-toting femme sticks

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up another man. It clamored: “The Story of A Babę Who Married the Wrong Guy!” A caricature of a huge hand cleaves a butcher knife above the tagline: “Her name is Córa ... She Gets Into Men’s Blood... And Stays There! His name is Frank ... His Savage Boldness Will Thrill the Women!"⁶⁵

Rarely had so many raw, libidinous, and murderous screen natratives involving flesh—in both graphic brutality and illicit sex—been condoned by industry PCA censors. The stories showcased violence, bold women, and twisted love triangles with sensational publicity. MGM spared no expense in its comparatively brighter $1,683,000 noir film. The Postman Always Rings Twice rollicked to the box office, reinforcing Hollywood’s wartime noir cycle, earning $3,741,000 in North American rentals, even morę than Double Indemnityjmd outpacing its predecessor abroad as well, where it earned another $1,345,000, totaling $5,086,000 and a handsome $1,626,000 profit for MGM.⁸⁴ Like MGM with The Postman Always Rings Twice, Warner Bros. was jumping on the noir bandwagon. Producer Jerry Wald secured the pur-chase of Mildred Pierce on the tails of Breens Double lndemnity approval. Wald used a similar narrative strategy to maneuver PCA restrictions and Warners’ studio brass pushed to heighten scandalous topics yet still gain Codę approval. Śtudios lost no time in producing crime-and-passion adap-tations. RKO filmed Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely shortly after Double In-demnity premiered, and Warner Bros. rushed to produce Chandler’s The Big Sleep. Cain’s stories were hot properties: Mildred Pierce was already in production, and Serenade had been purchased by Warner Bros. as MGM was making The Postman Always Rings Twice.⁶⁵ Cain’s tough fiction encour-aged an abundance of Code-approved hard-boiled film noir by the end of the war. Because studios had stockpiled roughly 200 films, completed but not released, throughout the duration, these wartime production trends also resulted in a proliferation of crime pictures in 1946, a delayed reaction to Hollywood^ booming war industry.⁸⁶ As women entered creative positions in Hollywood over the course of the war, the face of noir would also change, offering morę nuanced and multifaceted images of femme heroines.