John Garfield of the last film, based on the life of Al Schmid, a war hero blinded in combat. In preparing for the role, Garfield lived for several weeks with Schmid and his wife in Philadelphia and would blindfold himself for hours at a time. After the war, Garfield starred in a series of successful films such as "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) with Lana Turner, "Humoresque" (1946) with Joan Crawford, and the Oscar-winning Best Picture "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947). In "Gentleman's Agreement", Garfield took a featured, but supporting, part because he believed deeply in the film's exposé of antisemitism in America.
Film noir M. Cain (whose "The Postman Always Rings Twice" appeared five years later), and popularized in pulp magazines such as "Black Mask". The classic film noirs "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) and "The Glass Key" (1942) were based on novels by Hammett; Cain's novels provided the basis for "Double Indemnity" (1944), "Mildred Pierce" (1945), "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946), and "Slightly Scarlet" (1956; adapted from "Love's Lovely Counterfeit"). A decade before the classic era, a story by Hammett was the source for the gangster melodrama "City Streets" (1931), directed by Rouben Mamoulian and photographed by Lee Garmes, who worked regularly with