The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

Barbara Stanwyck mesmerizes as a woman with a past, bound by a crime to a husband she despises. Kirk Douglas quickens our collective pulses in his film debut as her disappointing, dipsomaniac spouse, while Van Heflin and Lizabeth Scott bring texture to supporting roles. Everything about this 1946 film noir is intriguing, from Lewis Milestone's direction to Edith Head's costumes to the edgy and troubled characters. It takes a long, hard look at guilt and the consequences of poorly planned actions. Well worth checking out, despite a wretched title. --Rochelle O'Gorman Amazon.com essential video

Fabulous Fluff and We Love It

This is so much fun to watch. Who cares if it isn't Wuthering Heights. Fab 40's stars. Film Noir. Stars who will never be matched. Ever. June 25, 2008

Melodrama

Stanwyck parraine Douglas dans ce film très old-class, plus mélodramatique que noir. Pas très original, mais les acteurs sont convaincants. Pourquoi s'en priver? October 10, 2007

Guilt, alocoholism, murder...a nifty noir

Not only does Kirk Douglas convince in his film debut as smarmy, alcoholic, and weak-willed, but the great Barbara Stanwyck also does her thing as a domineering, dominating one-woman empire, driven by power and, as we see somewhat later in the film, lust.

But guilt is part of the picture too. Stanwyck, in the title role, was responsible when much younger for the demise of her equally domineering aunt, played with gusto by Dame Judith Anderson (before she became a dame--meaning, of course, given that title by British royalty). Douglas, as Walter O'Neil, the bespectacled (when younger) son of a greedy hanger-on to the Ivers fortune, was witness to what Martha did and never revealed the truth after she, Walter, and Walter's greedy, weak-willed father (like father, like son) lie to the authorities about how Martha's aunt died.

Sam, a much stronger guy--physically, but more so emotionally--than Walter, was Martha's friend, also when younger, and he grows up to be Van Heflin who, for some reason I can't quite fathom, every woman swoons over. Probably because of his physique, I guess. Well, anyway, he comes back to Iverstown--yep, even the town is named after Martha's family--after a stretch in the armed forces and bumps into the ever-gravelly-voiced Lizabeth Scott as Toni Marachek, a cute kid who's just gotten out of the slammer. They hit it off, but Sam is there to do more than meet a babe by accident.

Sparks fly when he and Martha meet for the first time in 18 years, but these are weird sparks indeed, and before you can say "Guilty, guilty, guilty" a few times, Martha, Sam, and Walter all have this dark stuff going on--a combination of lust and guilt--that is the real crux of this movie.

The ending is maybe too melodramatic, and the score by Miklos Rosza is absolutely too melodramatic as well. In spite of this, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is a strong entry in the film noir canon and well worth watching, if not owning. September 30, 2007

I didn't love this one

...a dark film with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in-scratch that, I think the sink was tossed in there. Honestly, I thought Stanwyck and Douglas's performances were laughable. Douglas looked like he was just happy to be there and I don't know what Stanwyck's problem was. Van Helfin was okay but it's Lizabeth Scott that stole this one. She was the only character that came close to being believable. The young actors in the begining of the film were great, but the adult versions just fell flat. And this screenplay was nominated for an Oscar? Jeez. Must have been slim pickin's that year. Overall: Skip it. August 27, 2007

The return of the repressed

The sets and production values of this Paramount story of intrigue from 1946, the annus mirabilis of film noir, are superb, and there's no film starring Barbra Stanwyck that's not worth watching if just for her. Watchable though she inevitably is here, this is one of the few times in her long and magnificent career where she was truly miscast: Stanwyck was equally versatile playing comedy or drama, poverty or wealth, but the one thing she cannot play is neurosis--she was far too confident and driven a performer to be very believable as the highly ambivalent and conflicted Martha O'Neil. None of the three leads in this odd film seems ideally cast: as Martha's weakling alcoholic husband, Kirk Douglas, stunningly handsome in his first film role, is supposed to be wildly jealous of Van Heflin, of all people, who has come back to Iverstown (the Pennsylvania industrial town Stanwyck and Douglas jointly rule) with the memory of a childhood killing. Equally oddly cast is Janis Wilson, the memorably unhappy child Tina from NOW, VOYAGER here playing Martha as a young girl; it is inconceivable this anguished girl could ever grow up to be the tough and omnicompetent Stanwyck. Only Lizbeth Scott, as Heflin's weak new lady love, seems truly comfortable in her part. Even so, this DVD is still very much worth seeing if only for its early variations on common film noir themes. June 12, 2007

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