Film noir the most influential of the early noirs. A slew of now-renowned noir "bad girls" followed, such as those played by Rita Hayworth in "Gilda" (1946), Lana Turner in "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946), Ava Gardner in "The Killers" (1946), and Jane Greer in "Out of the Past" (1947). The iconic noir counterpart to the femme fatale, the private eye, came to the fore in films such as "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), with Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, and "Murder, My Sweet" (1944), with Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe. The prevalence of the private eye as a lead character declined
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946 film) car. They succeed in killing Nick but, things go wrong and Frank is seriously injured. Sackett, who has been following them from the start, greets Cora as she emerges from the cliff side, crying for help. As a tactic intended to get Cora and Frank to turn on each other, the District Attorney files murder charges against only Cora. Although this ploy works, a clever twist by Cora's lawyer, Arthur Keats, (Hume Cronyn) prevents Cora's full confession from coming into the hands of the prosecutor. With Sackett's idea having failed to generate any new evidence for the prosecution, Cora benefits