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Like the dark classic Double Indemnity, Tay Garnett's engrossing 1946 noir The Postman Always Rings Twice is based on a novel by James M. Cain, and both films share a basic plot structure: An unsatisfied housewife and her new flame conspire to do away with the woman's husband. Here drifter Frank Chambers (John Garfield) falls under the spell of his employer's spouse, Cora Smith (Lana Turner), and things go grimly haywire. The same Cain novel had been filmed in Italy by Luchino Visconti as Ossessione in 1943 and was remade in the United States by David Mamet and Bob Rafelson in 1981; both of these versions exceed Garnett's in brutality and nihilism, but they lack the cool sophistication and effortless patter that distinguish this film and most major works from the first wave of American film noir.