Luchino Visconti appeared all but fully formed in his directing debut, a loose, unlikely Italian adaptation of James Cain’s THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE. Made in Fascist Italy without rights clearance*and long suppressed, it’s exceptionally well cast and characterized, pure melodrama as story (older husband, unhappy wife, handsome drifter, murder, life insurance jackpot, delayed ironic justice), but a naturalistic game-changer in execution, a precursor to post-war Italian Neo-Realism, less James Cain than Émile Zola. (Very THERESE RAQUIN). Visconti, personally obsessed with Massimo Girotti before casting him as the hunky drifter, gives him a sweaty complexity and projects an unlikely pair of admiring friendships on him: a seaman (leftist/gay) who more or less picks him up and a young tart who also takes him in. As the unhappy wife, Clara Calamai, substituting for a pregnant Anna Magnani, was a lucky switch, with more sympathy than fierceness. A stop-and-start production (money problems, Visconti losing a brother in the war), you’d never know it from Aldo Tonti's fine, atmospheric lensing though a bit of confusion during the investigation may have resulted from the trouble. Beautifully paced at 2'20", a long running time for a first pic (Visconti tended to dawdle), but this feels very tight, very memorable.
DOUBLE-BILL: *Two legit POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE adaptations: clean, effective & weightless in 1946 for John Garfield/Lana Turner; sweaty with passion & dirty fingernails if less assured in ‘81 for Jack Nicholson & Jessica Lange.
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