have created may balance the one they took. They go to the beach and swim, realizing they still love each other. On the way back, Frank accidentally crashes the car and kills Cora. Frank is tried and convicted for killing Cora. While on death row, he is visited by a priest and by District Attorney Sackett, who confronts him with the evidence of his involvement in Nick's murder and reasons that if he resists his legal fate in Cora's death that he'll only wind up back where he is with a conviction for Nick's murder. Frank accepts that, while he is innocent of Cora's death, his execution will be a fitting punishment for his murder of Nick. Frank muses that, just as the postman always rings a second time to make sure people receive their mail, fate has ensured that he and Cora have finally paid the price for their crime. Cast Lana Turner as Cora Smith John Garfield as Frank Chambers Cecil Kellaway as Nick Smith Hume Cronyn as Arthur Keats Leon Ames as Kyle Sackett Audrey Totter as Madge Gorland Alan Reed as Ezra Liam Kennedy Jeff York as Blair Morris Ankrum as Judge Dudly Parkman (uncredited) Byron Foulger as Picnic Manager (uncredited) Frank Mayo as Bailiff (uncredited) Production In early February 1934, before Cain's novel was published, RKO executive Merian C. Cooper submitted a synopsis of his story to the Production Code Administration (PCA), which reviewed movie scripts using the Motion Picture Production Code (commonly known as the Hays Code). Upon reviewing the synopsis, with its themes of adultery and murder, the PCA persuaded RKO to abandon its plans to film Cain's story, calling it "definitely unsuitable for motion picture production." After Cain's novel was released, Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. expressed interest in the property, but Warner Bros. quickly rejected the story out of concerns that a film version would run afoul of censors. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the rights to make a movie adaptation a full twelve years prior to the film's release. They didn't go forward with the project earlier as the Hays Code began to be rigorously enforced very shortly after they had acquired the rights. The studio finally decided to proceed in 1944, upon observing the success of Paramount's film adaptation of Cain's novella Double Indemnity, which violated many of the same moral taboos. Lana Turner's character, Cora Smith, wore all white in every