why? Why ruin it? I've just watched the original and the remake and I don't know why they ruined the great ending the original has. They've completely removed the point of the film and the title.
Too late skippy, you're a communist now...
how the original ends? i have only seen the 1981 film
shareSPOILER TIME FOR THE INFINITELY SUPERIOR 1946 VERSION!!!!
IF YOU'VE NOT SEEN IT, GO AWAY AND RENT BEFORE COMING BACK HERE!!!!
The remake ends after his girlfriend dies in the car crash. However, in the original, he is convicted of her murder, which he is innocent of. However, the phrase the Postman Always Rings Twice comes about because he escaped justice the first time. You can miss the postman's knock once, but he always knocks twice to get you in th end.
Infinitely superior? Come on. This deserves another thread.
Infinitely superior my a$$.
I forgot how good a remake it is. It's closer in tone to Visconti's Ossessione than the 1946 Garfield - Turner version. It's also devoid of the Hayes Code constrictions and hit you over the head moralizing. It's a great recreation of the mid thirties and a bit more believable a production in that Joe Colicos is a better Nick Papadakis, and Jessica Lange sizzles as Cora. Jack Nicholson is equal to John Garfield, its a wash there, the only two characters that don't equal or surpass those of the 46 version are Angelica Huston, as Madge (Aurdrey Totter was great and more effective in a much shorter sequence) and Hume Cronyn was slimier than Michael Lerner as the lawyer.
So, it's not that the ending changes--if you've read the book--so much, as where it leaves off. The 40s version sounds like it ends like the novel.
sharePerhaps Rafelson felt the film needed a sense of closure that the original didn't have. It really didn't bother me.
share[deleted]
spoiler][/spoiler]Hi: I think it could be reference to Visconti's Ossessione, his 1943 unauthorized version of James M Cain's novel; if I remember correctly it had a similar conclusion.
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