The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

With all of the schemes, intrigue, sexual undertones and murder this is a very rare and so incredibly original post-wartime movie.

Many have cited this as the inspiration for the much later 'Neo-Noir' alongside, another Stanwyck classic 'Double Indemnity'.

Unlike the latter feature, this film is not filled with cold and brooding images.

The film starts off dramatically with a strong cameo by Judith 'Mrs. Danvers' Anderson. The teen-aged actors that portray Stanwyck's, Heflin's, and Douglas's characters as youths deliver very moving performances.

They capture the tension of murderess Martha's wicked deed. The teen-aged actors pull off the difficult task of linking their characters with the mature characters- a great start to this bold film.

Personally, Barbara Stanwyck is the best of the 'Golden Hollywood' queens, and displays why with this subtle yet sly performance. Unlike many of the other criminals she portrayed, Barbara is cold-blooded rather than hysterically evil and occasionally reveals the blood that boils behind her gray eyes.

Her lethal attraction to Heflin is passionate at the same time as chilling. It is a true triumph that the colourful relationship between the two sizzles on the screen without the use of lush, colourful cinematography! The black and white colour highlights the gloom of the piece.

Van Heflin swaggers through the film, giving a satisfactory performance as the wronged kid 'from the wrong side of the tracks'. Many have praised Lizabeth Scott for her sultry performance as the equally dubious Toni Marachek. This is true. She is a worthy foe for Stanwyck, and in some scenes does steal the attention away from her co-stars.

Now, many have criticised Kirk Douglas's performance as over-acted and unconvincing. I have to disagree. Perhaps for many audiences, it is too much of a shock to see the usually rugged, manly Douglas playing an unstable Daddy's boy manipulated by his wife, and cowardly towards the end. It is a difficult role, but Douglas retains the wimpish quality of Walter from start to finish, also depending on the actions and control of his unbalanced wife.

Towering performances, a gloomy soundtrack, and dark cinematography make this feature dazzle as one of the best 'film noir' genre produced in the 1940s.

Lizabeth Scott in particular gives a commanding performance, which generates interest, glamour and suspicion. These are the stem of the themes to this great film.

Brilliant as it was 59 years ago!

Fmovies: An engrossing and creative film-noir, "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" offers an interesting and unpredictable story with quite a bit of commentary about its characters. Van Heflin gives a particularly memorable performance, with plenty of help from Barbara Stanwyck and a very young-looking Kirk Douglas.

The story is very well-conceived, showing first a tumultuous series of events in the youth of its main characters, and then showing how their adult lives are still shaped by things that happened long ago. The three child actors are all able to make their characters ring true with the adult versions played later by the stars, and the script makes good use of the opportunities that the setup offers.

The tension is built up skillfully, and it never lets up. Although the danger and the drama involving the characters is more than enough to carry a good movie, it also brings out plenty of observations about the characters' personalities and their decisions in life, and this adds additional depth to an already very interesting story.

In 1928, in Iverstown, the heiress Martha Smith Ivers is caught by the police for the fourth time while trying to runaway home with her friend Sam Masterson. She hates her aunt Mrs. Ivers (Judith Anderson) and while in her room with her tutor's son Walter O'Neil and Sam later, the power runs out and she asks Sam to bring her cat back to the room. When Sam is trying to catch the cat in the dark, her aunt comes to the staircase and Sam hides himself. Mrs. Ivers hits the cat with a stick, Martha pushes her in the staircase and Mrs. Ivers dies. Martha lies to Mr. O'Neil and tells that a man had killed her aunt, and Walter confirms the lie. Eighteen years later, Sam (Van Heflin) is driving in the road nearby Iverstown, but he does not pay attention in a curve and hits his car in a post. He brings his car to a body shop in the industrial town, and while waiting for the repair, he meets the gorgeous Antonia Marachek (Lizabeth Scott) in front of the house where he lived. When Antonia loses her bus to her hometown, she accepts the invitation of Sam for a drink and later she goes to his hotel. On the next morning, Antonia is arrested for violation of probation, and Sam decides to pay a visit to Walter O'Neil (Kirk Douglas), now a successful district attorney and married with the wealthy Martha Ivers (Barbara Stanwyck), to ask him to release Antonia. When Walter sees Sam, he believes Sam wants to blackmail Martha and him, and his misunderstanding leads the former friends to tragic revelations about the fatal night and discloses dirty secrets about the couple Martha and Walter.

"The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" is an amazing underrated film-noir. The flawless story is excellent, disclosed in an adequate pace and developing perfectly the despicable characters. The black & white cinematography is magnificent, and the fatal character of Barbara Stanwyck is one of the most dangerous and manipulative villains I have ever seen in a film-noir. Kirk Douglas is great in his debut, but Van Heflin and Lizabeth Scott steals the movie with their performances and chemistry. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "O Tempo Não Apaga" ("The Time Does not Erase")

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers fmovies. this movie is one of those lost gems. barbara stanwyck and kirk douglas do a great job but they are not the reason this is a great gem. van heflin (of shane) and lizabeth scott are superb and in some ways overshadow kirk douglas in his screen debut and stanwyck. lizabeth smolders and pouts her way to perfection, what a babe!!. lizabeth should have been a huge star especially in the film noir genre. both van heflin and lizabeth scott are massively underrated and typically not remembered. that is a shame since they both were fine actors, that is the present generations loss. the plot is superb and throws some nice curves that keeps you on your toes.

Martha Ivers, a young girl under the guardianship of her grandmother played by Judith Anderson, tries often to run away, but is brought back every time. Grandma is one powerful autocratic and twisted old woman. One night after Grandma kills the girl's cat, she kills her. Her tutor's son sees the deed and now has blackmail power. Young Martha also thinks someone else has seen the deed, young Sam Masterson who she has a yen for. He actually skedaddled before witnessing anything.

Flash forward several years. Now everyone is grown up. Barbara Stanwyck is Martha and she's married the tutor's son played by Kirk Douglas in his film debut. He's also the District Attorney. And the main action of the film begins as grown up Sam Masterson who is played by Van Heflin comes back to his home town. He's treated rather strangely and it takes him a while to figure out why.

Life has a funny way of working out and Stanwyck has essentially turned into Anderson. Heflin is no real hero here either, he's quite willing to engage in some blackmail. But he's redeemed somewhat by the love of another girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Lizabeth Scott.

The film is memorable for two reasons, the power packed performance of Barbara Stanwyck and the debut of Kirk Douglas. This is a choice Barbara Stanwyck role, a powerful ruthless woman who'll do anything to keep and protect what's hers.

It's odd that Kirk Douglas makes his debut as a weakling, but even stranger that the dynamism that is his screen trademark is so well hidden in this portrayal. This part isn't exactly Spartacus. But Kirk is one capable player.

Heflin and Scott do well in their respective parts, but even though she's only on the screen for the first 15 minutes the one you won't forget is Judith Anderson. Seeing Stanwyck with her machinations later on, you wonder what must have made Anderson such a twisted human being.

The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers is a well plotted melodrama that does credit to all involved.

Due to a car accident, Van Heflin has to return to his home town in "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers," and walks into a world full of blackmail and murder. 18 years earlier, he ran away from home the night his friend Martha's aunt was murdered while Martha, her friend Walter, and Walter's father were in the Ivers house. Now he returns to find Walter (Kirk Douglas) is the drunken district attorney and married to Martha (Barbara Stanwyck), the richest woman in town - Iverstown is, after all, named after her family. Though Martha has never fallen out of love with Heflin, her husband thinks he's there to blackmail them because, though a man was hung for killing her aunt, it was Martha who did so while her aunt (Judith Anderson) was beating Martha's cat. In my opinion, she deserved to die. D.A. Douglas uses a troubled woman Heflin has met, played by sultry Lizabeth Scott, to attempt to drive Heflin out of town. But it doesn't work.

A top-notch cast carries this intriguing story along. Heflin was evidently considered a matinée idol in his day - in both this and Possessed, women swoon over him. My mother loved him, so he must have had something. He was a good actor, with a smoothness and an engaging smile. And he plays the part with a certain ambiguousness - up to a certain point, you're not sure if he knows Stanwyck's guilty secret or not. Stanwyck, beautiful and elegant as the troubled Martha, does a great job playing a twisted sister if there ever was one (though I still don't blame her for killing that miserable Judith Anderson). Douglas, in an early performance, holds his own well as the pathetic, wimpy Walter. Lizabeth Scott is lovely, sad, and vulnerable as Toni, the woman Heflin meets while in town.

Very good mid-'40s film.