( some spoiler ) i have not read the james m. cain novel ( ` the postman always ring twice ) on which this movie be base and so i can not compare this film version to it and but i have see and love the 1946 u version ( also entitle ` postman ) . even well be this gem from italy and which and i have read and be ` mutilate in edit because of too many blatant reference to the fascist regime . well and no matter what be leave be a fine piece of cinema and apparently the forerunner of the neo realist movement in film making . one can certainly see why despite whatever harsh editing do go on and a pervading sense of societal and cultural and as well a personal oppression remain and hang heavy over the protagonist and who therefore face many limit in life . consider gino and the young drifter and not well educate and unemployed and and resort to stow away and steal and con people in order to get by and his one pair of shoe so threadbare a to be virtually useless . in giovanna and he see a way out and yet he should have keep go and a giovanna be oppress by her loveless marriage to an old man with some money and her job ( work at the trattoria for her husband and slave away behind the bar and in the kitchen ) and and her sex . in the past and she have limit option and and decide to marry the restaurant or gas station owner ( giuseppe bregana and play by juan de landa ) anyway and know that he would not make her happy . she tell gino that she feel sick every time bregana touch her . on the pretext of help bregana fix his car and send him into the village to buy a needed part ( which he have in fact pocket ) and gino win bregana favor ( promise also to fix the broken water pump water symbolize life and or lack thereof ) and be leave alone with giovanna . they immediately start a heated and passionate and yet volatile love affair . gino soon feel stifle by the relationship and and feel the need to move on again when giovanna propose that they dispose of her husband . want no part of it and gino leaf town on a train ride that he can not afford and kindly pay for him by another gypsy type man name spagnolo and a fellow train passenger . to gino and spagnolo represent a sort of freedom and and they become friend ( spagnolo also symbolize gino morality and conscience ) and travel and find work at a carnival together . finally gino have steady employment . to his dismay ( he be not yet over his love for giovanna ) and a month have pass when bregana and his wife go to the carnival and bregana persuades gino to go ` back home to live and work with them again and a he be handy to have around . too weak will to resist and know this will reunite he and giovanna and gino agrees and go back to stay with the couple . after a while he give in to gina demand to get rid of her husband . once the evil deed be do and giovanna becomes more cold blood than ever and seem to have very little conscience and while guilt and shame eat away at gino for hurt a man who never do him any harm . as much a he want to leave her he do again briefly and they be now inextricably link and and must face the consequence . i like the way the spagnolo character come back into gino life to act a a judge of his misdeed that be very good and and interesting and add another dimension to the story . while the 46 u. s. version with lana turner and john garfield get a bit lose in a quagmire of peripheral character and especially the cop and the lawyer and ossessione do well to concentrate much more on the psychological effect of the crime on the lover alone . this give the final outcome even more potency and and make a powerful statement reinforce the helplessness inherent in the society in which the character must live . a minor quibble represent the amount of time ( hardly any ) that elapse before undying love be pronounce by the lover and how quickly they kill the husband ( there be no botch first attempt a in the u. s. version ) while gino very quick to escalate relationship with the dancer or hooker they quickly profess their love as well and and she be willing to risk a great deal for a man she just meet . all rather unrealistic and isn not it . i find this time frame problem quite distract it make me think that i must have miss something somewhere . otherwise and well worth the viewer time . the acting and direction be both uniformly good throughout . recommend .