Adapted 'unofficially' from James M. Cain's novel 'The Postman Always Rings Twice', Visconti's stunning debut is a hotbed of smouldering passion, playfully symbolised by boiling pans, screaming cats and gathering storms. It begins with the arrival of Gino, a travelling tramp (Massimo Girotti), who turns up by chance at a roadside trattoria, stays on as a labourer and falls for the innkeeper's wife Giovanna (Clara Calamai). As the story unfolds, the twisting journey suffered by the lovers, coupled with the film's moral ambiguity, stretches the tension to near breaking point.