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

Autor(en)

Lothar Tschapka

Abstrakt

The American writer 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 and in six languages, ranging from English, French and Italian to Hungarian, German and Malay. 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.

Organisation(en)

Department für Ernährungswissenschaften

Journal

SSRN Electronic Journal

ISSN

1556-5068

DOI

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5075599

Publikationsdatum

2024

ÖFOS 2012

602005 Amerikanistik, 602053 Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, 604011 Filmwissenschaft, 605004 Kulturwissenschaft

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), Visual Arts and Performing Arts

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 5 – Geschlechtergleichheit

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/6d53524b-4399-43b0-a153-455744e1112e