The Postman Always Rings Twice — Page 2

Noir City’s final weekend: Pre-code ‘Maltese Falcon,’ Gary Cooper and a special appearance by Marsha Hunt

May 4, 2012 by Film Noir Blonde

Gary Cooper

FNB shot by Halstan Williams; www.halstan.com

Noir City at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre wraps up this weekend with a first-rate slate of films. Tonight is the Dashiell Hammett double feature, starting with the 1931 (pre-code) version of “The Maltese Falcon,” starring Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels, directed by Roy Del Ruth. In “City Streets” (1931, Rouben Mamoulian) a young Gary Cooper goes crooked in order to free his love (Sylvia Sidney) from prison. It should be great looking, given that the cinematographer is Lee Garmes.

The Saturday matinee is the noir classic “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1946, Tay Garnett), starring Lana Turner as one of the all-time best femmes fatales opposite a smoldering John Garfield; based on James M. Cain’s novel. Before the film, Denise Hamilton, noir novelist and editor of the Edgar-winning Los Angeles Noir short story anthologies, will discuss the genesis of film noir and the cross-pollination between Hollywood and its noir bards.

John Garfield

Lana Turner

Saturday night is a terrific pick: two films from the underrated director Jean Negulesco. First, “Three Strangers” (1946) tells the cynical tale of a trio bonded by fate and a winning lottery ticket: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Geraldine Fitzgerald. To read more about this film, I recommend this piece by my friend, writer/producer Barry Grey.

Fitzgerald also stars in 1946’s “Nobody Lives Forever,” scripted by W. R. Burnett. Here, she’s a war widow getting conned by scheming ex-GI John Garfield. There will be a discussion between films with Fitzgerald’s son, Michael Lindsay-Hogg. At 6:30 p.m., in the Egyptian lobby, Lindsay-Hogg will sign his book “Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond.”

Geraldine Fitzgerald

Marsha Hunt

Next up is the Sunday matinee: “Circumstantial Evidence” (1945, John Larkin) a father-son noir starring Lloyd Nolan and Michael O’Shea. This will pair with “Sign of the Ram” (1948, John Sturges).

Says the program: This unusual film was fashioned as a vehicle for star Susan Peters, who plays a sociopathic, paraplegic matriarch bent on destroying her family. Peters, injured the year before in a hunting accident, gives a remarkable performance – all the more haunting for the fact that her paralysis is real. Hitchcock collaborator Charles Bennett wrote the screenplay.

And closing the fest is a special appearance by actress Marsha Hunt. The films shown are an ultra-rare B, “Mary Ryan, Detective” (1949, Abby Berlin), and “Kid Glove Killer” (1942, Fred Zinnemann) in which Hunt plays a police forensics expert juggling a cop (Van Heflin) and a gangster (Lee Bowman). Scripted by John C. Higgins, “Kid Glove Killer” is Zinnemann’s feature film debut. Ava Gardner plays a car hop.

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Filed Under: Noir Style Tagged With: Ava Gardner, Barry Grey, Bebe Daniels, Charles Bennett, City Streets, Dashiell Hammett, Denise Hamilton, Detective, film noir, Fred Zinnemann, Gary Cooper, Geraldine Fitzgerald, James M. Cain, Jean Negulesco, John Garfield, Kid Glove Killer, Lana Turner, Lee Garmes, Marsha Hunt, Mary Ryan, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Nobody Lives Forever, NOIR CITY: HOLLYWOOD, Peter Lorre, Ricardo Cortez, Susan Peters, Sydney Greenstreet, Tay Garnett, The Maltese Falcon, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Three Strangers, Van Heflin, W.R. Burnett

Film noir feline stars: The cat in ‘Postman Always Rings Twice’

November 30, 2011 by Film Noir Blonde

More on the most famous kitties in film noir …

The Cat in “The Postman Always Rings Twice” 1946

Name: Sasha Pirster

Character Name: Curiosity

Though her screentime was brief, Sasha Pirster made a memorable impression in "Postman."

Bio: “I like cats, they’re always up to something,” says the motorcycle cop as he looks admiringly at a full-figured kitty climbing a ladder in “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” Directed by Tay Garnett and based on the famous novel by James M. Cain, “Postman” is a seminal film noir.

Sadly for Curiosity (Sasha Pirster), platinum blondes with nice legs are also always up to something. The blonde in this case is Cora (Lana Turner) who plots with her lover Frank (John Garfield) to kill her husband Nick (Cecil Kellaway). Curiosity is on screen only long enough to be noticed by the cop and make Frank nervous before she meets a rather brutal end.

The lovers’ first attempt to do away with Nick is staging an accidental drowning in a bathtub. But when the power fails, their plan is foiled and poor Curiosity, who happened to be an innocent bystander, is electrocuted. “I never saw a prettier cat,” says the cop. “It killed her deader’n’ a doornail.” This strange omen does not deter the killers in the least and they proceed to Plan No. 2.

Lana Turner

Despite her character’s grim fate, feline actress Sasha Pirster was a joy to work with. Known for her wry one-liners and practical jokes (she was fond of offering cash rewards for mittens), Sasha was popular with both cast and crew.

In fact, Lana Turner was between husbands during the filming of this movie and the two actresses frequently went out on the town; their drink of choice was kahlua and cream. It was on one of these outings that Sasha met the love of her life, a wealthy fish merchant (well, ok, he was a fat cat) named Felix Kurllup, whom she married in 1947.

Sasha said goodbye to acting and became a homemaker; the couple had 13 children. After raising the kittens, she launched a popular line of turbans inspired by Turner’s elegant toppers in “Postman.”

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Filed Under: Noir Style Tagged With: Cecil Kellaway, famous cats, feline stars, film noir, James M. Cain, John Garfield, Lana Turner, Tay Garnett, The Postman Always Rings Twice

Rouge tins and compacts and powder, oh my!

January 12, 2011 by Film Noir Blonde

Tonight is part two of my Q&A with writer, social historian and author of the Vintage Powder Room, Joan Renner.

Writer Joan Renner

FNB: Where do you find your pieces?

JR: When I first began to collect I could find face powder boxes at flea markets and estate sales, but the Internet has changed that considerably. I still find items in those places occasionally, but mostly I rely on Internet sites such as eBay and Etsy (and the generosity of friends).

FNB: How were you able to research the original prices and how/where was the makeup typically sold, upon its release?

JR: I’ve used multiple sources to research pieces in my collection. My favorites are vintage magazines and newspapers. Via the Los Angeles Public Library I access the Proquest database to view early issues (1880-1980) of the Los Angeles Times online. Ancestory.com also makes it possible to search vintage newspapers from around the country.

For a peek into the early days of the cosmetics/perfume industry I think that the publication AMERICAN PERFUMER AND ESSENTIAL OIL REVIEW can’t be beat. I’m fortunate because the Central Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library has a good collection of them.

Then, as now, the pricier brands of makeup would be found at the cosmetics counter of the finer department stores. Women on a tighter budget could find a wide array of makeup choices at their local drugstore or five and dime.

Many of the early cosmetics companies were regional and either went out of business years ago or they were absorbed by bigger companies. A few of the largest brands are still in business; for example Coty is over 100 years old and continues to manufacture Airspun face powder in a box designed by Rene Lalique! The box is festooned with little powder puffs and it is simply gorgeous. You can purchase it at a drugstore or online for just a few dollars. Amazingly inexpensive for a piece of cosmetics and design history!

Coty Airspun face powder (hard to date this box because the design is virtually unchanged from original)

FNB: Are any still made today/ have you ever worn or used any of your collection?

JR: I’ve used some of the compacts that I’ve collected, but never any of the cosmetics – that would be way too risky. Over the years cosmetics have contained some toxic, potentially lethal, ingredients. Early cosmetics contained a wide variety of nasty ingredients such as lead or arsenic.

FNB: How has the merchandising and marketing of makeup and beauty products changed over the last 60 or so years?

JR: Cosmetics companies still advertise in fashion magazines and other magazines geared toward women, but now you have TV and radio advertising, both mediums were in their infancy 60 years ago. Surprisingly, even in the early days of makeup, there were celebrity endorsements and the celebrity branding of cosmetics.

During the 1910s and 1920s Mary Garden, a Scottish born opera singer, partnered with Rigaud to offer a line of cosmetics and perfumes using her name and image. Another woman who would leverage her fame into a line of cosmetics was Edna Wallace Hopper. Hopper was an actress/singer who would never reveal her age. She said that her birth records had been destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake! She was always described as eternally youthful looking, so that was the hook for her brand of cosmetics and skin care.

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