* Annapolis 1.7.1892 – † University Park, Hyattsville,Md., 27.10.1977.

Hij had zijn opleiding aan het Wqashington College.Hij debuteerde in 1934 met The postman always rings twice, een voortreffelijk voorbeeld van de onder invloed van Ernest Hemingway ontstane ‘tough novel’. Dit boek werd bewerkt voor toneel (1936), film (1946, 1981) en opera (1982). De titel van de roman slaat niet op de inhoud – een liefdesgeschiedenis – maar op het feit dat het manuscript door vele uitgevers werd geretourneerd vóór het uiteindelijk werd gepubliceerd. Zijn latere romans zijn vaak zwakker van compositie, maar psychologisch sterker.

WERK: Serenade (1937); Mildred Pierce (1941); Love's lovely counterfeit (1942); Past all dishonor (1946); The butterfly (1947); The sinful woman (1947); The moth (1948); Jealous woman (1950); The root of his evil (1951); Galatea (1953); Mignon (1963); The magician's wife (1965); Rainbow's end (1975); Institute: a novel (1976)

LITT. W.M.Frohock, The novel of violence in America: 1920-50 (1950); D.Madden (red.), Touch guy writers of the thirties (1968).

Cain did write the screenplays for STAND UP AND FIGHT (1939) and GYPSY WILDCAT (1944), but like Dorothy Parker and F. Scott Fitzgerald, did not adapt well to the rigors of screenwriting. More than a dozen films have been made from Cain's novels and stories, several of which have become classics of the film noir genre.

The first, DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), starred Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray as a cold-blooded couple planning an insurance fraud murder; it was later loosely remade as BODY HEAT (1981) with Kathleen Turner and William Hurt (although neither film utilized Cain's original Satan worship subplot). The film version of MILDRED PIERCE (1945) won Joan Crawford the Best Actress Oscar, and the 1946 and 1981 film versions of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE provided showcases for actresses Lana Turner and Jessica Lange, respectively. Pia Zadora did not have the same luck starring in a disastrous version of Cain's BUTTERFLY (1981).

Cain's books are dark tales of obsessive love and murder, peopled by rumpled men with troubled pasts and gorgeous "dames" either in distress or causing distress. His stories translated perfectly to the film noir genre of the 1940s, with its dark, angled lighting, hard-boiled scripts and lack of naivete. His characters provided performers the opportunity to change direction (Crawford, MacMurray) or establish their niche as big-city toughs (John Garfield and Lana Turner in POSTMAN).

In private life, Cain was a cantankerous, much-married alcoholic. Moving to a small Maryland town in the late 1940s, he continued writing until his death in 1977, but never achieved the success he had enjoyed early in his career. From 1944-47, Cain was married to silent screen star Aileen Pringle.

Filmographie James M. Cain

1934   SHE MADE HER BED                               from story

1938   ALGIERS                                             screenwriter

1939   STAND UP AND FIGHT                            screenplay

1939   WHEN TOMORROW COMES                     from story

1939   WIFE, HUSBAND AND FRIEND                  from novel

1940   MONEY AND THE WOMAN                       rom story

1942   OSSESSIONE                                       from novel

1944   DOUBLE INDEMNITY (WILDER)                 from novel

1944   GYPSY WILDCAT                                  screenplay

1946   THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE      from novel

1947   OUT OF THE PAST                                screenwriter

1949   EVERYBODY DOES IT                   from story

1950   STORY OF A LOVE AFFAIR/CRONACA DI UN AMORE    from novel

1956   SERENADE                                           from novel

1956   SLIGHTLY SCARLET                               from novel

1981   BUTTERFLY                                         from novel

1981   THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE      from novel

1995   GIRL IN THE CADILLAC                           from novel