Character Introductions 003: Cora Smith
Character Introductions 003: Cora Smith
The opening few minutes of The Postman Always Rings Twice follows Frank (John Garfield) hitchhiking to this diner, where he asks for lunch then waits as the owner dashes out.
Whatever we expect next, it’s probably not this jaw-dropping entrance, which suddenness surprises us as much as Frank:
Upon hearing a sound which could be a door closing; Frank turns, to see the noise was actually a lipstick tube falling.
The camera cuts to a high angle, clearly approximating Frank’s point of view, then its movement mimics Frank's eyeline across the floor.
As his glance drifts, it crosses lattice shadows which turn to jail bars.
His gaze stops on a pair of legs, then for a moment the camera cuts back to Frank's face:
before his eyes shift, cuing the cut to full image of Cora (Lana Turner), a femme fatale all in white. This cut skips the even-then stereotypical gaze-drifting-up-a-woman’s-body, which can be effective but also overdone:
After a bit of flirting (read: seduction, seduction, seduction) Cora closes the door, and that second ‘click’ noise breaks the spell the fallen (read: dropped) lipstick started.
Frank suddenly smells smoke . . . OOPS the hamburger on the stove has burnt to a crisp.
His reaction is a comedy beat, but the charcoal patty serves as foreshadowing as much as the jail-bar shadows: Cora’s introduction has sealed his fate, and Frank is already cooked.
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The Postman Always Rings Twice