How Often Did He Ring? The (Many) Film Versions Of James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice

The American James M. Cain (1892-1977) was among those authors who not only wrote best-selling novels, but gained even more popularity from the film versions of their works. Other such writers include Ian Fleming, inventor of James Bond, and, more recently, J. K. Rowling, who created the Harry Potter series. Through his books, Cain inspired such cinema classics as Visconti’s Ossessione (1943), Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944) and Curtiz’s Mildred Pierce (1945), as well as the Mario Lanza film Serenade (1956). Cain’s first novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934), was adapted for the screen no less than seven times, in six languages ranging from English, French and Italian to Hungarian, German and Malaysian. This paper is the first to compare all versions, placing special emphasis on the two main characters’ first encounter as well as on the films’ endings, while also providing a glimpse of several other cinematic works inspired by Cain’s Postman story