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) her sick mother. At the train station, after Cora rebuffs him and leaves, Frank spots a woman having car trouble and hooks up with her. When Cora returns, she talks to Frank about how she believes the two of them are going to get along much better. When they arrive home, Kennedy (Alan Reed), an investigator who used to work for Cora's lawyer, is waiting; he attempts to blackmail them with Cora's confession, but she and Frank beat him up and force him, and his partner in crime, to give them all copies. After the men are gone, Cora reveals