The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

A man is reunited with his childhood friend and her husband, who believe he knows the truth about the death of her rich aunt years earlier.

Director:

Lewis Milestone

Writers:

Robert Rossen (screenplay), John Patrick (from an original story by) (as Jack Patrick)

Stars:

Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Barbara Stanwyck	...	Martha Ivers
Van Heflin	...	Sam Masterson
Lizabeth Scott	...	Toni Marachek
Kirk Douglas	...	Walter O'Neil
Judith Anderson	...	Mrs. Ivers
Roman Bohnen	...	Mr. O'Neil
Darryl Hickman	...	Sam - As a Child
Janis Wilson	...	Martha - As a Child
Ann Doran	...	Bobbi St. John
Frank Orth	...	Hotel Clerk
James Flavin	...	Detective #1
Mickey Kuhn	...	Walter - As a Child
Charles D. Brown	...	McCarthy

Storyline

In 1928, young heiress Martha Ivers fails to run off with friend Sam Masterson, and is involved in fatal events. Years later, Sam returns to find Martha the power behind Iverstown and married to "good boy" Walter O'Neil, now district attorney. At first, Sam is more interested in displaced blonde Toni Marachek than in his boyhood friends, but they draw him into a convoluted web of plotting and cross-purposes.

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Plot Keywords:

younger version of character | innocent man executed | heiress | district attorney | industrial town | 

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Taglines:

Whisper HER NAME

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Genres:

Drama | Film-Noir | Romance

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 September 1946 (USA)

Also Known As:

Love Lies Bleeding

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hal Wallis Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Stanwyk had considerable influence on how she was lit, and was not shy about putting her fellow actors on notice that she did not like to be upstaged. When she saw the coin trick Van Heflin had learned - at Milestone's suggestion, to show that Heflin's character was a professional gambler - she informed him he should make sure he did not do it during any of her important lines, since she had a bit of business that would upstage him, if she had to. With that she raised her skirt high and adjusted her garter. The result was that Heflin only used the trick once in a scene with her.

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Goofs

When Sam and Toni are in the taxi cab stopped at a railway crossing waiting for a train to pass, cars can be seen coming up behind and passing them.

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Quotes

Toni Marachek: You know what probation is?
Sam Masterson: Oh sure, a knife stickin' in your back.

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits prologue: IVERSTOWN 1928.

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Connections

Featured in A Faithful Man (2018)

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Soundtracks

Strange Love
(uncredited)
Music by Miklós Rózsa
Lyrics by Edward Heyman

User Reviews

Whisper her name: Stanwyck as twisted steeltown autocrat

Lewis Milestone's The Strange Love of Martha Ivers presents a, well, strange case. Much if not most of it fits comfortably into the noir cycle that was just gathering its head of steam. But its look, save some recurrent bus-station shots, suggests lavish and well-lit prestige productions (as does its length), and in its deep-rooted narrative it harks back to sprawling, brooding melodramas such as Kings Row.

That narrative is broken-backed as well, with two disjointed time frames. The movie opens in 1928 in sooty Iverstown, a steel city almost certainly somewhere in Pennsylvania. There we meet, as teenagers, three of the story's principals: Unruly Martha, making yet another attempt to run away from her wealthy, rigid aunt (Judith Anderson); her street-urchin buddy Sammy; and prissy school-teacher's son Walter. On the night Anderson is bludgeoned to death (to the tune of lightning, thunder and crashing rains), Sammy waits for Martha to join him; when she doesn't, he signs up with the circus and blows town.

Fast-forward to 1946, when decorated veteran Sammy (Van Heflin), headed west, cracks up his car and finds himself once more in Iverstown. He meets up with the fourth main character, Lizabeth Scott, who not unlike himself has been knocked about (she's a jailbird). When the police lock her up for violating parole, he pays a visit to his old friend Walter (Kirk Douglas, in his debut), now the district attorney, to secure her release.

Douglas, who rarely draws a sober breath, holds the office thanks to the ambition and power of his wife Martha (Barbara Stanwyck). (The original publicity campaign cautioned `Whisper her name!') When she shows up unexpectedly and warmly greets Heflin, all Douglas' insecurities and jealousies erupt; not only does he suspect that Heflin has always been his wife's first love but he fears that Heflin, privy to the long-buried secret of the aunt's death, can undo his marriage, his success, and the industrial empire Stanwyck has built. He takes heavy-handed measures to defend himself, blackmailing Scott into framing Heflin. But hasn't reckoned with the resourcefulness of his adversary – or with the wilfulness of his wife.

But the story is really plotted along romantic coordinates whose intersections are punctuated by Miklos Rozsa's throbbing score. Douglas loves Stanwyck, who really loves Heflin, while Scott loves Heflin, who loves her back but still has unfinished business with Stanwyck (no wonder Douglas drinks – nobody loves him). And in the rondelay of turnabouts and betrayals (or seeming betrayals), The Strange Love of Martha Ivers slips perilously close to soap opera. Its stately pace and prosperous look give it a dated, ponderous feel, quite unlike the rough sleekness of film noir, though there's an unmistakable echo of Double Indemnity – Stanwyck's performance as Martha Ivers reworks hers as Phyllis Dietrichson, right down to the concluding love-death tableau.

But, while occasionally cumbersome, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers stands on its own as an overwrought, obsessive drama, with a very topical acknowledgment of the insulation that money and power can buy, and of the moral and social corruption that inflexibly comes as part of the package. It's a strange movie, all right, but a haunting one as well.