The on-set sexual tension between John Garfield and Lana Turner was clear to all involved with the making of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Their first day together, he called out to her, "Hey, Lana, how's about a little quickie?" to which she replied "You bastard!" (from Body and Soul: The Story of John Garfield by Larry Swindell).

Director Tay Garnett wanted to shoot in as many actual locations as possible for the movie, a rarity for MGM at the time. For the seaside love scenes, he took the cast and crew to Laguna Beach, where a fog made shooting impossible for days. After a few days, they moved to San Clemente in search of clearer skies, only to have fog roll in there as well. Then word got to them that the fog had lifted at Laguna Beach. By the time they got back there, however, it had returned.

The strain of waiting for the fog to lift caused the director, who had suffered from drinking problems in the past, to fall off the wagon. Garnett holed himself up in his hotel room, where nobody could get him to stop drinking. Concerned about rumors that he was going to be replaced, Garfield and Turner decided to visit him on their own. Garfield could get nowhere with him, but Turner managed to convince him to go back to Los Angeles for treatment. When he returned a week later, the fog lifted, and they all went back to work.

Another result of the location delays was a brief affair between Garfield and Turner, according to Garfield's friend, Warner Bros. director Vincent Sherman. He said Turner was the only co-star with whom Garfield ever became romantically involved. There had been sparks between the two since the first day of shooting, and the delays had sparked a close friendship. Finally, they shared a moonlit tryst on the beach but that was their only night together. The two realized that whatever was happening on-screen, off-screen they had no sexual chemistry together. They remained friends nonetheless.

As originally written in Cain's novel, Madge (Audrey Totter), the woman who briefly lures Garfield away from Turner, was a lion tamer. Garnett even filmed the scene in which she introduces Garfield to her cats. During shooting, a tiger sprayed the two stars, prompting Garfield to jokingly ask for stunt pay.

The sneak preview of The Postman Always Rings Twice was a disaster, particularly the scenes in which Totter shows Garfield her collection of trained cats. James M. Cain was so embarrassed he crawled out of the screening to avoid producer Casey Wilson.

Totter's scenes were salvaged in re-takes which removed the trained cats footage and changed her character to a hash-house waitress.

Cain was so impressed with Turner's performance he presented her with a leather-bound copy of the book inscribed, "For my dear Lana, thank you for giving a performance that was even finer than I expected."

by Frank Miller