What 1946 film noir starring Lana Turner and John Garfield is about a love affair and murder?

The 1946 film noir starring Lana Turner and John Garfield about a love affair and murder is The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Directed by Tay Garnett, the film follows Frank Chambers, a drifting laborer played by Garfield, who finds work at a roadside diner. There he meets Cora Smith, played by Turner, the unhappy young wife of the diner’s owner. Their affair develops into a murder plot when Cora persuades Frank to help kill her husband so they can control the business.

The film adapts James M. Cain’s 1934 crime novel. Hollywood censors initially considered its themes of adultery and murder unacceptable, and MGM delayed the project for years under the strict Production Code. The success of Double Indemnity, another Cain-related noir adaptation, helped persuade the studio to make it.

This was the first English-language film adaptation to use Cain’s original title. Earlier versions included the French film Le Dernier Tournant and Luchino Visconti’s Italian Ossessione. The story was remade in 1981 with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange.