Four-Star Films : ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’

With its steamy seductions, jinxed murder plots and inexorable fate at a California truck stop, the James M. Cain novel influenced Italian neo-realism--Luchino Visconti filmed as “Ossessione” in 1942--and in this 1946 version became a key film in postwar Hollywood film noir. Directed by Tay Garnett, it remains one of Lana Turner’s (right) very best films. Dressed always in white, most memorably in a two-piece bathing suit, Turner plays the glamorous, bored wife of much-older Cecil Kellaway. Then along comes John Garfield (left) (KCET Saturday at 9 p.m.).

Other selected four-star films airing this week:

Jaws / TBS, Sunday, 9:05 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Lives of a Bengal Lancer / AMC, Monday, 3 p.m. and early Tuesday, 3 a.m.

Babette’s Feast / Showtime, Tuesday, 12:45 p.m.

Atlantic City / TMC, Wednesday, 2:30 p.m.

Rebel Without a Cause / A&E;, early Saturday, 1 a.m.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) AMC, Saturday, 2 and 8:30 p.m.