The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946 film) a play, which had 72 performances at the Lyceum Theatre, in New York, from February to April 1936. The cast included Richard Barthelmess as Frank, Mary Philips as Cora, Joseph Greenwald as Nick and Dudley Clements as Sackett, with minor roles played by Joseph Cotten and Charles Halton. Lana Turner was cast as Cora Smith. Turner said this was a favorite role of hers. Cain felt that she was the perfect choice for Cora and was so impressed with her performance that he presented her with a leather-bound copy of the novel inscribed "For my dear Lana, thank you for
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