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And, I ask you - Can you actually imagine a big-name, Hollywood, crime film that (as its #1 selling point) arrogantly boasts about the torrid sex scenes that take place on-screen between its 2 stars.... And, then when it comes to these apparently heavy-duty scenes, they are (get this) delivered sans nudity? Ha! Well, that's exactly what this disappointing, utter mess-of-a-remake did. From its truly laughable "kitchen table" rape sequence, to its utterly demented courtroom dramatics, to Lange's grate-on-your-nerves hysterics and Nicholson's nitwit histrionics, The Postman Always Rings Twice (TPART, for short) was about 100x worse that I had ever imagined that it could be. I found that, for the most part, I could barely stay awake throughout TPART's almost unendurable 2-hour running time. From start to finish, I rank TPART as being nothing but a putrid pile of pure cinematic excrement.

Frank (Jack Nicholson) is a Depression-era (regular gas was 16 cents a gallon; ethyl 18 cents) drifter, a thief, and a con man. Cora (Jessica Lange) is the bored and sensuous cook in a tavern run by her older Greek husband, Nick (John Colicos). The first time Nick goes to town, Frank & Cora end up on the kitchen table in mad, savage, animalistic lovemaking. They try to run away together, but come back to kill her husband. When they failed the first time, they staged a wreck. Cora got so excited she spread her legs right there on the ground near her supposedly dead husband. The film is full of passion and excitement. Things change rapidly, and you are always guessing. Anjelica Huston even pops in as a weekend fling for Frank. The ending was a surprise, but it fit perfectly.

Twice is nice. Hollywood had to try twice to get this story right. Lana Turner was beautiful in the 1946 version, but Jessica Lange was something to kill for opposite Jack Nicholson. Such raw sensuality would easily persuade a man to lose his very soul. Nicholson's part is certainly unscrupulous to begin with, but in Jessica Lange he finds a confederate with even less scruples. The legal loose ends that dangled in the earlier version are avoided this time with a more plausible chain of events... and the story ends when the story ought to end, instead of being dragged on. Wonderful character and situation development, intriguing and engaging, even when you know the story. Nice twists of the story from the Lana Turner and Italian ("Ossessione" 1943) versions.

Immensely watchable, this remake of the 1940s classic is sexed up by writer David Mamet and director Bob Rafelson. Jack Nicholson is a drifter who ingratiates himself into the lives of roadside diner/gas station owner John Colicos and his impossibly sexy wife Jessica Lange. Soon Lange and Nicholson are having sex EVERYWHERE...and plotting to bump off Colicos. Aided by great cinematography by Sven Nykvist and very evocative production design by George Jenkins, Rafelson manages to capture James M. Cain's ironic novel and all it's sordidness. Nicholson is terrific but Lange gives a career making performance...this is the movie that put her on the map after the KING KONG debacle. There are times when she acts Nicholson off the screen. Colicos is fine, if a bit old for his role and Michael Lerner is in it too. Anjelica Huston has a really odd cameo as a lion tamer!