James M. Cain

James M. Cain

Birth : 1892-07-01, Annapolis, Maryland, USA

Death : 1977-10-27

History

James Mallahan Cain (1892–1977) was an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter. He is considered one of the founders of the hardboiled crime genre.

Profile

James M. Cain

Movies

National Theatre Live: Obsession
Novel
Gino is a drifter, down-at-heel and magnetically handsome. At a road side restaurant he encounters husband and wife, Joseph and Hanna. Irresistibly attracted to each other, Gino and Hanna begin a fiery affair and plot to murder her husband. But, in this chilling tale of passion and destruction, the crime only serves to tear them apart.
Buai Laju-Laju
Novel
Zaiton seduces a drifter named Amran into murdering her elderly husband, Ibrahim, to get his money and land.
Passion
Novel
György Fehèr’s aim was to “make a film which is similar to the last salvaged print of a long lost film”. The passions he investigates are centred on primeval fears and cravings and a sense of inescapable doom. Shot in powerful black and white with excellent central performances.
Girl in the Cadillac
Novel
A runaway teenage girl and a drifter rob a bank, hit the road to elude the Texas Rangers and find love on the run.
Butterfly
Novel
Jess Tyler lives a quiet life next to an abandoned mining factory by himself in the desert. His life is turned upside down when a sexually provocative young woman comes to visit him and tells him she's his daughter. Jess finds it hard to adapt to his newly found parenting role, as a mutual attraction grows between them.
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Novel
The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.
Double Indemnity
Novel
A scheming wife lures an insurance investigator into helping murder her husband and then declare it an accident. The investigator's boss, not knowing his man is involved in it, suspects murder and sets out to prove it.
Interlude
Screenplay
A young female journalist in London falls in love with a married orchestra conductor.
Interlude
Story
A young woman touring Germany is caught between a married symphony conductor and a doctor from back home.
Serenade
Novel
A wealthy woman discovers a vineyard worker with a beautiful operatic singing voice. She helps make him a star but then breaks his heart. He flees in misery to Mexico where he meets a sweet farm girl.
Slightly Scarlet
Novel
Kleptomaniac Dorothy Lyons is paroled from prison into the custody of her sister June, secretary to "reform" politician Frank Jansen. Ben Grace, associate of crime boss Sol "Solly" Caspar, sees this as a way to smear Jansen's campaign. Seductive Dorothy will do anything to get what she wants, which includes having a good time with Ben-- whom June is now in love with.
Everybody Does It
Story
Leonard Borland loves his monied wife, but with his wrecking business looking shaky he treasures her all the more. So when she decides to try again to become an opera singer he indulges her. While organising a concert for her he meets glamorous Cecil Carver. She in turn discovers Leonard has a splendid voice, and encourages him to use it for reasons very much her own.
Out of the Past
Additional Writing
Jeff Bailey seems to be a mundane gas station owner in remote Bridgeport, California. He is dating local girl Ann Miller and lives a quiet life. But Jeff has a secret past, and when a mysterious stranger arrives in town, Jeff is forced to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Novel
A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband.
Mildred Pierce
Novel
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
Gypsy Wildcat
Screenplay
In an unspecified Renaissance kingdom, no sooner has Anube's gypsy tribe encamped near Baron Tovar's village when Count Orso is found murdered. The wicked baron blames the gypsies and imprisons them all in his castle. Meanwhile, a mysterious stranger on a white horse has hidden the murder arrow and won the heart of gypsy belle Carla, to the discomfiture of her erstwhile fiancée Tonio. Baron Tovar is also fascinated by Carla...especially when he notices her heraldic pendant.
Double Indemnity
Novel
A rich woman and a calculating insurance agent plot to kill her unsuspecting husband after he signs a double indemnity policy. Against a backdrop of distinctly Californian settings, the partners in crime plan the perfect murder to collect the insurance, which pays double if the death is accidental.
Ossessione
Novel
Gino, a drifter, begins an affair with inn-owner Giovanna as they plan to get rid of her older husband.
The Shanghai Gesture
Writer
A gambling queen uses blackmail to stop a British financier from closing her Chinese clip joint.
Money and the Woman
Story
An embezzler's wife begs his boss for forgiveness, only to fall in love with him.
When Tomorrow Comes
Story
Romance and heartbreak walk hand-in-hand when Philip Chagal accidentally meets Helen Lawrence in a restaurant where she is a waitress. Unhappily married to a woman who suffers from mental illness, he is attracted to her and they make a date to go sailing, arriving at Philip's country home just as a storm is breaking. Helen learns who he is for the first time, a celebrated-and-famous concert pianist and, falling in love with him, decides to leave before matters go further. A hurricane hits and their car is crippled by a falling tree. Rising water forces then to seek shelter in the choir loft of a church, where they spend the night.
The Last Turning
Novel
Frank, a hobo, ends up in a garage-truck stop in the middle of nowhere. Nick Marino, its older, kind and naive owner, is married to Cora, a sexy and mercenary woman half his age. Frank, although not a fan of hard work, accepts Nick's offer to work for him. Of course, it is not for Nick's sake that the young man becomes his attendant, but for the love of Cora under whose spell he has fallen at once. It does not take long before Cora, who despises her husband, asks her lover to help her get rid of him. Frank is reluctant at first but ...
Wife, Husband and Friend
Novel
Woman hopes to be a great singer and is encouraged by her scheming teacher. After she flops her husband, encouraged by an amorous professional singer tries opera and also flops.
Stand Up and Fight
Screenplay
A southern aristocrat clashes with a driver transporting stolen slaves to freedom.
Blockade
Writer
A simple peasant is forced to take up arms to defend his farm during the Spanish Civil War. Along the way he falls in love with a Russian girl whose father is involved in espionage.
Algiers
Dialogue
Pepe Le Moko is a notorious thief, who escaped from France. Since his escape, Moko has become a resident and leader of the immense Casbah of Algiers. French officials arrive insisting on Pepe's capture are met with unfazed local detectives, led by Inspector Slimane, who are biding their time. Meanwhile, Pepe meets the beautiful Gaby, which arouses the jealousy of Ines.
She Made Her Bed
Story
"Duke" Gordon (Robert Armstrong), a circus lion-tamer, tries to tames his wife, Laura (Sally Eilers), just as he does his lions. But she is a one-man woman, married to the wrong man, and refuses to cheat on her cheating husband even though her happiness depends on doing so.