Thanks to Wes Clark's Burbankia (my latest obsession) I recently learned that novelist James M. Cain wrote his 1934 best-selling book, The Postman Always Rings Twice, while residing right here in Burbank.
Therefore, I decided to spend the morning portion of my MLK Jr. holiday on a vintage celebrity house-hunting tour up the road a piece, bringing home a snap of Cain's former (rented) abode located at 616 S. Bel Air Drive, between Providencia and Cedar:
The sensational sexual crime novel was initially banned in some cities, but was eventually was adapted into the 1946 MGM film noir classic (tamed down from the book thanks to the Production Code) starring Lana Turner and John Garfield.
Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway), the middle-aged proprietor of a roadside restaurant, hires drifter Frank Chambers (Garfield) as a handyman. Frank eventually begins an affair with Nick's beautiful wife Cora (Turner), who talks Frank into helping her kill Nick, by "accident." But the best laid plans...... ~ Jim Beaver, IMDB.com
Cain wrote other novels that were also made into enduringly classic favorite feature films, such as "Mildred Pierce," starring Best Actress Ocar-winner Joan Crawford, and "Double Idemnity," starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray.
Novelist James M. Cain
Cain died in 1977 at the age of 85, and his body was donated to medical science.
Click here to see James M. Cain books and movie items at Amazon.com.
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