Themes: Treacherous Spouses, Crimes of Passion, Dangerous Attraction
Main Cast: Jack Nicholson, Jessica Lange, John Colicos, Michael Lerner, John Ryan
Release Year: 1981
Country: US
Run Time: 123 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Bob Rafelson's remake of 1946's The Postman Always Rings Twice, with a screenplay by the award-winning playwright David Mamet, stars Jack Nicholson as Frank Chambers, a depression-era drifter who ends up at a diner run by Nick Papadakis (John Colicos), who offers Frank a job. Frank takes him up on the offer, but quickly begins a torrid affair with Nick's wife Cora (Jessica Lange). The adulterous lovers soon hatch a plan to kill Nick and share in the insurance payout. The second big-screen adaptation of the James M. Cain novel, the film garnered a certain degree of notoriety for the explicit sex scenes between Lange and Nicholson. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Anjelica Huston - Madge; William Traylor - Sackett; Thomas Hill - Barlow; Raleigh Bond - Insurance Salesman; Don Calfa - Goebel; Carolyn Coates - Twin Oaks Customer; Betty Cole - Grandmother; Sam Edwards - Ticket Clerk; Brian Farrell - Mortenson; Virgil Frye - Crapshooter; John Furlong - Sign Man #2; Tani Phelps Guthrie; Albert Henderson - Beeman; Brion James - Crapshooter; Christopher Lloyd - Salesman; Ken Magee - Scoutmaster; William Newman - Man from Home Town; Joni Palmer - Granddaughter; Eugene Peterson - Doctor; Elsa Raven - Matron; Glenn Shadix - Twin Oaks Customer; Louis Turenne - Ringmaster; Jon Van Ness - Motorcycle Cop; Dick Balduzzi - Sign Man #1; Kenneth Cervi - Crapshooter; Tom Maier - Twin Oaks Customer; James O'Connell - Judge; Kopi Sotiropulos - Greek Mourner; Frank Arno; Lionel Smith
Credit
Dorothy Jeakins - Costume Designer, William P. Scott - First Assistant Director, Bob Rafelson - Director, Graeme Clifford - Editor, Andrew Braunsberg - Executive Producer, Michael Small - Composer (Music Score), Dorothy Pearl - Makeup, George Jenkins - Production Designer, Gerald R. Molen - Production Designer, Rick Carter - Production Designer, Sven Nykvist - Cinematographer, Charles B. Mulvehill - Producer, Bob Rafelson - Producer, Steve Maslow - Sound/Sound Designer, Art Rochester - Sound/Sound Designer, Tom Elliott - Stunts, Alan R. Gibbs - Stunts, David Mamet - Screenwriter, Robert Gould - Set Decorator, James M. Cain - Book Author
