The film was screened out of competition at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival . Upon release , the film was poorly received by many critics , who felt that the remake of the 1946 film of the same name was wasted . They also believed the ending was " very weak " compared to the original film . They also criticized the fact that the meaning of the title is not explained in the remake , which can lead to confusion among viewers . Jack Nicholson later said " If you ran a question through this industry about '' The Postman Always Rings Twice '' , most people would surmise that it was n’t successful . That is not true . I know it made money , because I received overages , so it must ’ve grossed about as much as '' Chinatown '' and much more than '' Carnal Knowledge '' . But people are anxious to disqualify it . " The film has since been received more favorably ; it scores a 77 % " fresh " rating on Rotten Tomatoes , with 10 positive reviews and three negative . Kerry Segrave and Linda Martin praised the " charged chemistry " between Nicholson and Lange , and stated that Nicholson admitted that he was smitten with his co-star , remarking that she was a " big consensus movie sex bomb " . The film was nominated by the American Film Institute in 2002 for the AFI 's 100 Years ... 100 Passions list
1981 Cannes Film Festival
1981 Cannes Film Festival
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981 film)