(minor spoilers)
A drifter walks into a roadside diner and inquires about a help wanted position. He is taken on the shrewd owner and taken greatly by his young and sultry wife. Soon, the two find each themselves in each others arms and quickly cook up a scheme to bump off the bumbling husband, not fully aware of the meaning of the title omen. "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is classic film noir from the hard boiled James M. Cain novel. John Garfield is excellent as the well meaning hitcher who has no intentions of getting entangled with the seductive femme fatale, played by a sexy and sultry Lana Turner. Much of the film's tension is released following the murder (although the latter courtroom scenes feature a great turn by Hume Cronyn as an unscrupulous defense attorney), "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is genre defining filmmaking.
