Pierre Chenal (December 5, 1904 – December 23, 1990) was a French director and screenwriter who flourished in the 1930s, and was best known for film noir thrillers such as the 1937 film L’Alibi, where he worked with Erich von Stroheim and Louis Jouvet. In 1939 he made Le Dernier Tournant, the first of many film treatments of James M. Cain’s celebrated novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice.
Chenel was Jewish and was forced to flee occupied France for South America in 1942. He made a number of films while living in Argentina and more in France after the war; but his post-war work never achieved the success and popularity of his pre-war efforts.—Wikipedia
The first adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Pierre Chenal’s Le Dernier Tournant hews closer to the book than most.