25. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain

Cain’s noir thriller of 1934 was originally entitled Bar-B-Q. His publisher, Alfred Knopf, didn’t like the title and asked for a change, so Cain substituted The Postman Always Rings Twice. Knopf was mystified. There is no postman in the book, and no mention of the phrase. Cain said that while searching for an alternative he got talking to a playwright friend, Vincent Lawrence, who told him how nervous he often felt while waiting to hear from his producer. Cain reported the following conversation:

Then, [Lawrence] said, ‘I almost went nuts. I’d sit and watch for the postman, and then I’d think, ‘You got to cut this out,’ and then when I left the window I’d be listening for his ring. How I’d know it was the postman was that he’d always ring twice.’
He went on with more of the harrowing tale, but I cut in on him suddenly. I said: ‘Vincent, I think you’ve given me a title for that book.’
‘What’s that?’
‘The Postman Always Rings Twice.’
‘Say, he rang twice for Chambers, didn’t he?’
‘That’s the idea.’
‘And on that second ring, Chambers had to answer, didn’t he? Couldn’t hide out in the backyard any more.’
‘His number was up, I’d say.’
‘I like it.’
‘Then that’s it.’

This would be the end of the story behind The Postman Always Rings Twice were it not for the fact that no-one ‘rang twice’ for Frank Chambers (the hero of the book), nor did he ‘hide out in the backyard’, nor did he ‘have to answer’. Cain, it seems, was speaking metaphorically. The book is structured around two main events: the murder of the husband and the death of the wife. Chambers had a hand in both of them, but after the second death, ‘his number was up’, ‘he couldn’t hide’. He had played deaf to the first ring, but was forced to respond to the second. The ‘postman’ was fate, nemesis, retribution, divine justice; and the parcel that awaited Frank was the recorded delivery of his own demise. The postman, after all, always rings twice. Justice will be done.

The ready way that Lawrence understood Cain’s meaning is believable, given that they were both exponents of a craft in which there is a preoccupation with what lies behind events: three-act structure, reversals and re-reversals, etc. Or perhaps it is not so believable. Wouldn’t ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ have been a more likely response from Lawrence? In the final analysis we only have Cain to go on, and the line of least resistance is to trust him.

The Postman was a huge best-seller, and Cain became rich and famous. The title was a major contributor to the book’s success. The image of the postman is a particularly good one. The postman is a lone male, not unlike his co-worker the iceman — or like Frank Chambers. Lone males calling on houses during the daytime may encounter lone females. What are the two rings but a secret signal? What is on the end of a secret signal but love? The title is suggestive but enigmatic, domestic but menacing, gnomic but nonsensical. It is hard to believe that The Postman Always Rings Twice would have been filmed with Lana Turner and John Garfield, and later with Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson, had it been called Bar-B-Q.

Consulted:
Cain, James M: Three of a Kind (introduction by James M Cain, Knopf, 1944)
Madden, David: James M. Cain (Twayne, 1970)

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