In this unauthorized adaptation of James Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice," a drifter falls for the wife of the owner of a roadside inn and the two plot to murder him. While the 1946 Hollywood version of the book wisely focuses on the lovers, this Italian version includes subplots involving the drifter's friends that make it drag and go on much too long. Not helping matters is the poor quality of the print, which comes from Visconti himself after the original negative was destroyed. The flickering images make it look more like a silent film than one made in 1943. This is not a bad directorial debut for Visconti, but his screenplay is not only plagiarized but rambling.
