Before The Postman Always Rings Twice was filmed, it was adapted for the stage. Cain was hired to write the script (although he initially did not want to) and the play opened on Broadway on February 25, 1936. It was a lavish production, with sets designed by Jo Mielzner, who later worked on the award-winning productions of Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire, but ran for only seventy-two performances. A revival in the 1950s starred Tom Neal and Barbara Payton, but it too had only a limited run.

Soon after the novel was published and became known as a "taboo" book, critics predicted that it could not be successfully translated into film.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the movie rights to the novel, but the Hays Office blocked the first attempt to produce it. The Postman Always Rings Twice was finally made into a movie in 1946 starring Lana Turner and...