I don't think it's quite in the same class as the somewhat similar Double Indemnity, but it's still a class act. Sizzling chemistry between Garfield and Turner.

Along with DI, one of those which always comes to mind first is Detour. Ann Savage is among the greatest of all the many wonderful noir femme fatales.

Femme fatales. I could talk about them all night. Love Jane Greer in Out of the Past and Rita Hayworth in either The Lady from Shanghai or Gilda and the absolute hottest one has to be Ava Gardner in The Killers. Man, what a wonderful genre.

Yes, this is one of my favorite noirs, although I rank Double Indemnity above it; and Out of the Past is my top one. As one guest on TCM's The Essentials said of the latter film, every actor's performance is perfect--a rarity in film.

@pt100 said:

Yes, this is one of my favorite noirs, although I rank Double Indemnity above it; and Out of the Past is my top one. As one guest on TCM's The Essentials said of the latter film, every actor's performance is perfect--a rarity in film.

I love Double Indemnity but there were times when MacMurray's delivery made me wince. It was usually when he was addressing Stanwyck's character and the way he said "baby". It just didn't sound natural at all. But it is a nit pick. The film is wonderful.

@Invidia said:

@pt100

The WOMAN in the WINDOW and SCARLET STREET are 2 other good films in this GENRE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOQeqcPocsQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHMq4GDk2yA

When we watched the POSTMAN film in film class I laughed at the part where she drops the lipstick and it rolls across the floor, because instead of that scene being SEXY the way it's suppose to be for that time frame back in the 40's, it looked SILLY and GOOFY and way too contrived for my time frame (which was several decades later on).

Did anyone else feel the same way about it???

Ha ha! It was kinda goofy in the way it was done but you completely forget about it when you get that shot of Lana Turner in that leggy outfit for the first time. It makes my jaw drop now . I can't imagine what they thought about it back then. They musta thought it was like soft core porn.

I haven't watched Scarlett Street but I did watch The Lady in the Window on Invidia's suggestion it is a damn fine noir. Good choice!

@Invidia said:

LANA's LIP STICK DROPPING CLIP HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGFer3-Aguw

QUESTION:

You drop this?

LANA:

Mmm hmm. Thanks.

Now IMAGINE if the current FIRST LADY were to enter a room wearing the same kind of SHORT SHORTS and top and drops her lipstick and it rolls in front of PUTIN.

Do you think he would think it was an ACCIDENT, or would he think she was deliberately trying to SET him UP and SEDUCE him for some reason, and KNOW that the reason why she drops it and lets it roll on the floor was in hopes that he'd pick it up so that he could get an even better look at her legs?

In other words, it's also pretty obvious that what she's doing isn't an INNOCENT act and that she's up to something else.

But he still ignores that fact and walks right into the TRAP that she sets up for him???

The whole thing just looks so UNNATURAL and so DELIBERATELY CONTRIVED ...

But was Turner trying to set up Garfield? I simply think she was trying to get a little attention. Being married to that old GOAT I'm sure she was starved for attention. In other words, it was just innocent girl flirting. It can be maddening to some men but I happen to take it in stride because I know what the intent usually is. Anyways, I never got the impression that Cora was looking for a chump to get rid of her husband for her.

@Invidia said:

This PLOT SUMMARY for the film confirms how she was in on the PLOT to murder the HUBBY:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Postman_Always_Rings_Twice_(1946_film)

Cora is tired of her situation, married to a man she does not love and working at a diner that she wishes to own. She and Frank scheme to murder Nick in order to start a new life together without her losing the diner. Their first attempt at the murder is a failure, but they eventually succeed.

Cora dies in a car crash while Frank is driving. Although it was truly an accident, the circumstances seem suspicious enough that Frank is accused of having staged the crash. He is convicted of murdering Cora and is sentenced to death.

After they escaped legal punishment for Nick's murder but with Cora now dead and Frank on his way to the death chamber, he notes that the postman has indeed rung a second time for each of them.

Yes, but at the beginning of the film you clearly see how she does not like Frank and even tries to get Nick to fire him or not hire him in the first place. I think it was after she falls in love with Frank that the wheels start to turn in her head and they BOTH begin to conspire to get rid of Nick. Besides, if she was just using Frank then she would have devised a plan to get him to take the fall and therefore disposing of both Nick and Frank. No, I don't think Cora had any conspiracy in mind at the beginning. I think it just developed. Now the Phyliss character in Double Indeminity was a calculating, cold-hearted bitch from the beginning. She is the quintessential femme fatale, no question. Another nasty one was Ava Gardner's character in The Killers or Jane Greer's in Out of the Past. Those bitches were out for numero uno and didn't give two figs for the suckers they enamored to help carry out their devilish plan.

@Invidia said:

@movie_nazi

I don't think Cora had any conspiracy in mind at the beginning. I think it just developed. Now the Phyliss character in Double Indeminity was a calculating, cold-hearted bitch from the beginning.

Yes it sounds like you're right and I'm getting the other character from DOUBLE INDEMINITY mixed up with this one. But, imo, what she's doing by dropping the LIPSTICK in the scene is definitely NOT INNOCENT, and she's deliberately messing with the mind of the poor guy who gets mixed up in the PLOT to kill her hubby.

So even IF she starts out not liking him, she also ends up being just as calculating as the other woman was who plans to kill her hubby from the beginning.

Murder is murder.

There are also different degrees involved whenever it comes to prosecution, but in this case, legally speaking, both women would also be GUILTY of having committed PREMEDITATED MURDER in the FIRST DEGREE.

Oh certainly. But in this instance I don't think I can call Cora a femme fatale per se. I mean, it can be argued that her flirting while married and beginning an extramarital affair when she should have been off the market makes her a femme fatale for Frank in the sense that his involvement with her spells out his doom. But not in the sense that he was a sucker to be used in her evil plot to be free of Nick. I don't know. As I stated earlier I think her dropping the lipstick was just her way to get some attention in a playful way which can be argued is harmless.

@Hobnobber said:

I believe those wheels were wisely turning in that initial push away. I saw it as that initial attraction you knew had consequences. This is more about the passion more than the greed and averous, focus quickly turned solution. Lange's version brings that aspect up to date. Getting away with anything, was a film frown then. For me the rural contrast sets this apart from the big city stories. Turner's 'discovery' plays into this as well.

I haven't watched the remake in a while but I do remember Cora did seem a bit more calculating in that one. I do like the rural aspect as well.

Oh, I know the general consensus is that Cora is indeed a femme fatale which is why I even bring up that perhaps in the modern sense she is not. The old way of thinking was that poor ol' Frank was just a sucker that got wooed by the wiles of the evil seductress who should have been behaving herself and stayed true to her husband. So in a way painting Frank as a somewhat victim in the whole affair. However, I look at it as simply two people both in the wrong and both concocting their evil plan together. Frank was every bit as responsible in the starting of the affair as she was which led to the eventual plan of disposing of Nick. I mean, if you look at it as Cora is the progenitor of the whole plot whereas if she never even existed or didn't playfully flirt with Frank to begin with, then none of what occurred that leads to Frank's doom would have ever have happened, then yeah, she is a femme fatale. I personally regard femme fatales as the ones that from the very beginning had nothing but wrongdoing on their mind and use the men they seduce to complete their evil deed.