Page 6
University Daily Kansan, April 7, 1981
A
James Cain's 'Postman' doesn't always ring on the screen
By MIKE GEBERT Contributing Reviewer
★★
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE,
starring Jack Nicholson, Jesse Lange, John
Angelica, Angelica Huston.
Adopted from the mansion Carly by David
Mamet. Directed by Bob Rafele.
We are in the midst of, whether you realize it or not, a revival of interest in the late American novelist James Cain. Long ranked as the third part of a trivium of superior crime novels with Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Cain became a hot name and the appearance of his first best selling novel, "The Postman Always Rims Twice."
The boom, which will include at least two films based on Cain's novels, might lift him from his niche as Chandler's literary kid brother to his rightful place in the company of (if not an equal partner to) Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
If he is judged by Bob Rafelson's uncompelling new adaptation of his first novel, Cain will be seen as an author of steamy crime novels, and nothing more, because this newest version leaves out everything that is distinctive about Cain.
Cain was an insurance man who turned to writing and produced immediately two brilliant depictions of lovers doomed by love and the law: "Postman" and "Double Indemnity". In both, his lovers are trapped into killing the woman's husband. They are tortured by the law and by money-hungry insurance companies, which are perfectly happy to let two murders go if they can save a few grand. They find their love destroyed by the murder and their behavior before the law, and they fail to fate when they try to repair their own lives.
IN BOTH, the main male character is drawn into the murder scheme by the woman—but she is no hackneyed, murderous seductress. She is one of those peripheral Los Angeles women, a beautiful piece of life, Dream rescue who is sounded by her fate.
Cora Papadakis in "Postman" talks about waiting so long for a break, having to deal with so many low-lives, that when the first guy with a gold watch came along, she married him. The murder is a natural by-product of California deseration.
Papadokis (Jessica Lange) is trapped by her increasingly unappealing Greek husband, Nick (John Colin), in a roadside on an archetypal Californian highway. When the sex dead-end driver Frank Chambers (Jack Nicholson) comes along, her need for security is overhelmed by the contrast between her affluent lifestyle and if she is going to keep on living there, Chambers or Nick must go; and the two lovers plan to kill Nick.
But they botch it the first time and they find themselves praying for Nick's survival—but then they realize it's not can't and decide to try it again. The result is a "murder that's so sloppy it's hardly even a
murder." They killick and make it look like a drunken road accident in which they too are killed.
IN THE HOSPITAL, the prosecutor bluffs Frank into signing a complaint against Cora. But their lawyer, by manipulating the greed of the insurance companies, destroys the prosecution's case and Cora is sentenced to six months probation for negligent driving—a welcome alternative to death in the electric chair.
Though free, they know that their love was destroyed by the way they were manipulated
by the law. They try to live together, and
their notorily butthed lives are shattered.
But their lives are shattered.
They are trapped by their love in bad circumstances; they kill a man and are trapped, twisted and then set free by a law which has interest in legalties, not justice. Turned away, he then reuled, and the past comes back to haunt them until fate destroys them.
You'll have to trust me on most of that; it's not on the screen. Edmund Wilson once said that Cain's novels were like movies with all the sex and passion and violence that the movie leaves out; the movies leave out; and these days, a Cain novel should be the most adaptable of books.
Somehow, David Mamet and Rafael blew it, badly. Cain was a master of wise-guy, snappy dialogue. Mamet has turned it into an astonishingly convincing story is gimmickny and absolutely unmemorable.
They also decided to concentrate on the relationship between Cora and Frank and not the plot mechanics—as if the plot mechanics were not what defines the relationship. Without the dime-novel plot and the heartless legal-insurance tricks played on the pair, the story loses much of its interest, most of its humor, and most of its centrating on character, Marnet and Rafelson rob their characters of it—as well as depriving us of many of Cain's best scenes.
JACK NICHOLSON and Jessica Lange are therefore of greater importance—and they simply don't work well together. Nicholson doesn't really belong here. He's a little too
old, but more than that, he's too smart and much so much of the "Shining" 's Jack Torrance in 1983.
Jessica Lange is the revelation. Her voice was what betrayed her before as an amateur in "King Kong" and "All That Jazze." Since Mamet's kind of mundane dialogue is the most memorable thing about her, has somehow gone from pretty/dumb model to accomplished actress—and though Mamet lets her down, Cora should be her opportunity for better parts. In the few moments where she's not performing, she desperate need for escape, she provides the only really convincing moments in the film.
The main selling point of the film is the presence of explicit, though unsensational sex scenes between Lange and Nicholson. Rafelson is uniquely qualified for this; he caught brilliantly the hungry, explosive nature of this kind of just in a similar scene in *Easy Pieces*. But it's a poor subtitle that should have been written between the two. By third or fourth time, one just sits back and says, well, they so can趴.
The thing is, Tay Garnett's 1946 version, with John Garfield and Lana Turner, lacked the sex scenes but had everything else the story needs. It suffered from MGM gloss, but one understood why the pair were driven to poor stupid Cecil Kelaway. (In this version he was played by John Colicos just to turn off his fake Greek accent.) And Cain's plot was preserved as well. But this time there's no apparent reason why the postman bothered to ring.
On Campus
TODAY
WILLIAM LEVITAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS will present a Classics-Music History colliquium entitled "Heard Melodies: Musique of the Greek Antique" at 3:30 p.m. in 400 Murphy Hall.
WESTERN CIVILIZATION FILMS will present "The Lottery," "Conversation with B.F. Skinner" and "The Long Childhood" at 7 p.m. in the basement of Lippincott Hill.
THE BIBLICAL SEMINAR ON ROMANS will
the BIBLICAL SEMINAR ON ROMANS will
the Christian Christian
Ministries Center.
TAU SIGM A STUDENT DANCE CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in 242 Robinson Center.
JOEL COX WILL GIVE AIN POETRY
JOEL COX WILL GIVE AIN POETRY
at 7:30 p.m. in the Big Eight Room of
the Union.
THE SIERRA CLUB will meet at 7:30 p.m. in the Pine Room of the Union.
CAMPUS CHRISTIAN HOUSE BIBLE
STUDYM will meet at 328 q.m. at 1135 Madison
STUDENTS' ANTI-NUCLEAR ALLIANCE
won't meet 5/29 at DePaul University
SALT BLOCK BIBLE STUDY will meet at 7:30 p.m. in Parlors A and B of the Union
AKIRA IRIYE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO will present a lecture of "The Changing American Perceptions of Asian Security" at 8 p.m. in the Council Room of the Union.
TOMORROW
KU VARSITY BAND SPRING CONCERT will be presented at 8 p.m. in University Theatre.
A CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER SESSION
at the Ecumenical Christian
Ministers' Center.
LA MESA ESPANOLA (SPANISH TABLE) will meet at 11:30 a.m. in 3095 Wescoe Hall.
BARBARA HARREL-BOND WILL SPEAK ON THE ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY at the University Forum at 11:45 a.m. at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center.
A MINORITY AFFAIRS/CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES panel will discuss "Non-Traditional Education in Latin America" at 1:30 a.m. in the Council Room of the Union
THE MT. OREAD BIKE CLUB'S TWILIGHT
Bike will begin at 6 p.m. at the South Park Gazebo.
JAYHAWK TOASTMasters will meet at 7 p.m. in the Walnut Room of the Union.
JOHN McFADDEN OF SACRAMENTO STATE UNIVERSITY will give a Minority Affairs/Center for Latin American Studies Panel at 7:30 p.m. in the Big Eight Room of the Union.
Carmen disappears as vocalists steal show
By PAUL STEPHEN LIM Contributing Reviewer
"Carmen," an opera in four acts by Georges Biret, libretto by H. Melihac and L. Halevy, based on the novel by Proposer Merrinee. KU orchestra conducted by George Lawner, stage direction by Lewin Goff, sets and lights by Gregory Hill costumes by Chez Haehi, Fred Hammacher Schuster, Final performances are on April 10 and 11 at the University Theater, 8.pm.
A very odd thing happens about an hour into the current production of "Carmen" by the University Theatre and the School of Fine Arts. Jayne Casselman, who until then has been the worthy focus of all our attention as Bizet's tempestuous herine, suddenly diminishes with every eyes and "disappears," even though she continues to be onstage for nearly two more hours.
Her "disappearance" is caused by a variety of factors.
In Act I, when Casselman first bursts into the scene with an alluring pack of factory girls taking a cigarette break (none of whom, incidentally, know how to smoke alluringly), she looks just like a sultry young Rita Hayworth. When she moves, she seethes with so much
wanton sexuality, you get the feeling there isn't one decent bone in her body. Beide her, all the "lusty" dragoons look helplessly asexual, almost like the toy soldiers in "The Nutcracker."
If the gypsy Carmen were not expected to do anything else in this opera except ooze sex and sing all those lovely arias, Casselman's performance would be more than exemplary. But there is more to Carmen than meets the eye, at which point Casselman's Casselman gets little help from the stage director, the light designer, and even the costume designer. Not only do these people give
Review
her no help, they go so far as to undermine her performance.
Although the libretto gives us two scenes where Carmen is not centerstage, it is crucial that we see at all times her reaction to what's happening.
In Act II, when we first see Escamillo (Jeff Martin) swagging into a disreputable tavern and, not incidentally, also into Carmen's life, poor Casselman is made to stand in a dark and obscure corner of the stage where she all but disappears from our sightline just when we
ought to be watching her and the torader
or another of his actions. Her sub-
sequent actions do not make much sense.
In Act III, the entire stage is so dark (presumably because it is night and we are at a" wild mountain pass") that again we do not see any of Carmen's reaction to the tender duet between Don Jose (Matthew Foerscher) and his former girlfriend Micaela (Stiefen Harlan). Without this, Carmen's ultimate rejection of Don Jose is hard to understand.
Finally, in Act IV, when the stage is flooded with blessed "sunlight," one of the things we witness is Carmen making a grand entrance on the arm of the torader, her body draped in the stiffest, the ugliest, the most garish red-and-white broached gown imaginable. Shortly after Jose stabs and kills her—as much a comment on her dress as it is on her various infidelities.
What saves the evening from being a total loss, however, is the strong singing, in creditable French by both Casselman and Foerschler. They were coached well by Robert Anderson. And then, of course, there's the glorious music by Derek Holmes, whose voice comes from first note to last. If nothing else, the haunting flute solo that begins the entracle before Act III is reason enough to see the show.
That, and Casselman before she "disappears" into the shadows.
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"NON-FORMAL EDUCATION IN LATIN AMERICA"
discussion by:
Professor Ivan Barrientes
and
Dr. John McFadden
April 8, 1981 1:30 p.m.
Council Room
Kansas Union
"HUMAN RIGHTS IN CENTRAL AMERICA"
discussion by:
Dr. John McFadden
April 8, 1981
8:00 p.m.
Big Eight Room
Kansas Union
"MEXICAN AMERICAN EDUCATION IN KANSAS"
discussion by:
Professor Robert Oppenheimer
Professor Nobleza C. Asunción-Lande
Maggie Rodriguez April 9,1981
3:00 p.m.
This ad paid for by MECHA, funded in part from Student Activity Fees.
Berlene Busartamate
Council Room
Kansas Union
SPONSORED BY MINORITY AFFAIRS
& THE CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
SNA FILMS
---
Tuesday, April 7 The Pirate
(1948)
Yolanda and the Thief
(1945)
Two classic MGM musicals, in the Picture, Judy Garland believes Game Kelly was better known as the star in this Cole Porter musical. Yvonne is a Technicolor fantasy about a con-man (Fred Astaire tries to convince a rich man that he can buy the house) as Lucille Bremer, whom Astaire called his favorite dance partner. Both directed by Timothy Minnell, (102108, night, color, 7:30).
Wednesday, April 8 The Burmese Harp
(1956)
Kon ichikawa's drama of a traumatized
Nicholas Dwight that hides it from vocation to
the war dead is one of the great anti-war
tragedies. 7.30" x 10.8" x 2.4" B&W,
Japanese publications, 7.30.
Unless otherwise noted, all films will be shown at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union. Weekday films are $1.00; Friday, Saturday, Popular and Sunday films are $1.50; Midnight films are $2.00. All filmstreams are on a subscription with Usa Union, 4th level, Information 864-3477. No smoking or refreshments allowed.