Frank and Cora are immediately attracted to each other, begin an illicit affair, and leave together, but Cora changes her mind and they return to the diner. _ THE STORYĭrifter Frank Chambers stops at a roadside diner, spots the luscious Cora, and takes a job offered by her older, alcoholic husband, Nick. Lana Turner, the ultra-sexy star, initially turned down the role because of the steaminess of the subject but was finally persuaded to take the part. The enormous popularity of Cain’s Double Indemnity revived interest in the earlier novel, and in May 1945 a script was approved, restoring all but some of the more graphic sex to Cain’s original version. Even then, the PCA judged that it was too sordid, and it was again abandoned.

Six years later, a script was submitted that removed the adultery, virtually all the sex, and the murder attempts on Nick, who would die accidentally. But by April of the same year, M-G-M, too, became convinced that it could never get approval and shelved it. Within two hours of Columbia’s accepting the PCA’s verdict, M-G-M acquired the rights, convinced it could get a screenplay that would pass muster.

Columbia and Warner Brothers, also interested in the rights, were told that the film could never receive approval.

The PCA felt so strongly about Cain’s book that in 1934 it warned RKO, which wanted to make the motion picture, that they would never allow it to be released. Its tawdry sexuality, adultery, murder, and the dishonesty of the lawyers and insurance company officials were all deemed unsuitable for audience sensibilities. Cain’s book filmed because of the powerful resistance of the Production Code Authority (PCA), the official censoring body of Hollywood that found everything about the book objectionable.

The postman always rings twice novel