The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers [1946]

---

---

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2007-03-31 rating:
there's 1 good quality dvd of this film on amazon:
when you read the commentary's about this movie, you'll notice how dissapointed people are about the poor print on dvd.
these commentary's are the same for all the prints listed here on amazon, because they correspond to the title only and not to a specific dvd release.
there is one release though wich has a very good quality of image and sound:
look for the cover in blue with a staircase in the left corner. at the top it reads: full screen (paramount dvd) collection.
the title is written in yellow.
you wont be dissapointed with this one.
enjoy !!

---

review by: starlighthotel date: 2005-08-29 rating:
The Rain That Never Stops
It's pouring rain as this dark noir melodrama opens, and after the night is over, it will always be raining for Martha Ivers. Lewis Milestone directed this tale of a life-long guilt that has festered until misplaced suspicion destroys one person and puts another out of her misery. There are good performances from a great cast, none better than Lizabeth Scott's as a girl down on her luck and hoping against the odds for something good to happen. She is the outside element to three lives bound together since childhood by a crime that has haunted two of them into adulthood.

This is a strange noir in many respects, mostly due to Milestone allowing the moviegoer to see the story in chronological order, rather than using flashbacks. It creates sympathy for the twisted Martha Ivers, because we know how one selfish moment of hatred in her youth set her on a coarse she can not change. It has been raining inside her ever since, until the water is sick and stagnant, but it always keeps coming. At the same time, however, we are rooting for the vulnerable Scott, hoping she'll be the victor in a battle she's not sure she can win.

Judith Anderson is Mrs. Ivers, little Martha's (Janis Wilson) aunt. She's none too nice and on a rainy night Martha causes her death in the heat of the moment, only her pal Walter (Mickey Kuhn) a witness. But they both think their friend Sam (Darryl Hickman) saw the crime also, and ran away. He did run away, but before the event that would change their lives forever.

It is nearly two decades later, and the adult Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) has an accident just outside of Iverstown. It brings back memories of when he was a brash kid, and the girl who now controls both Walter (Kirk Douglass) and the town. He meets the lovely Toni Marachek (Lizabeth Scott) on his first night there and helps her out a bit. She is fresh from jail and though Sam is a WWII veteran, his past is nothing to sneeze at either. There is something beginning between them but fate may decide Toni's future as a past Sam was no part of intrudes on the present.

Barbara Stanwyck is the adult Martha, married to the weaker of the boys from her youth, Walter. But you can tell she always wished it had been Sam who'd stayed that night so long ago. Even though they think he's there to blackmail them, she can't help but throw herself at him, even though she is too far gone on the inside for anything like real love. She does this right in front of her weak husband Walter, who may be more courageous in the end than Martha. Martha has it over on Walter because he loves her, but he is a constant reminder of the past for her. What they have together is a sick and twisted version of the real thing.

The relationship of Sam and Walter sort of mirrors their childhood but Heflin starts to feel sick about it and begins to like Walter, especially when he finally understands why they are so scared he'll tell something he didn't even know about. It's one thing to kill someone, but quite another to let someone else hang for it. All the while Toni has little moments with Sam, hoping it's enough to make him care, and blow Iverstown forever.

Even at the bitter end, there is that moment when you see in Matha's eyes, ever so briefly, that little girl again, and feel sympathy. Douglass is very good in his first screen role and Stanwyck's portrayel of the sad and sick Martha Ivers can stand proudly with any she played in the 1940's. Though her screen time is less by comparison, it is Scott who steals this film, however, as Toni is easily the most memorable character. Even when she isn't around, we are thinking about her plight, wondering where she's at and what will happen to her.

Heflin is solid as always and this is one of the great neglected noirs of the 1940's. There is a great ending where both couples get what they really want, and neither will look back on Iverstown anymore.

---

review by: date: 2003-10-04 rating:
Another Stanwyck ultra-vixen destroying people's lives
If you check out the film noir classic "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" because it is Kirk Douglas's first film, then you are going to be surprised that the character he plays is not a tough guy but a weakling who is dominated by his wife into becoming a criminal accomplice. Barbara Stanwyck plays the wife, the title character, in what is probably her most celebrated vixen this side of "Double Indemnity." As a teenager Martha had an innocent man sent to the gallows to cover up her accidentally killing her aunt (Judith Anderson), who was trying to stop young Martha from running away with Sam Masterson (Darryl Hickman). When Sam comes back to Iverstown years later (now played by Van Hefflin), Martha and her husband, Walter O'Neill (Douglas), assume it is to blackmail her for the murder. Ironically, Martha is wrong; Sam was not the one who witnessed the murder, it was really Walter. But in trying to "stop" Sam, the couple only succeed in destroying themselves. This is a tawdry little tale, with a neat sounding title that really does not mean anything vis-a-vis the actual story. Director Lewis Mileston, who won an Oscar for "All Quiet on the Western Front" in 1930, brings his sense of realism to this 1946 film. His use of a fluid camera style works effectively to depersonalize this nasty trio of characters. Stanwyck's performance is appropriately unsettling but it is fascinating to watch Douglas, who manages to make his unpleasant character somewhat sympathetic. No wonder he had a future in moving pictures.

---

review by: date: 2003-04-28 rating:
Bide your time
Let's face it, this is not one of Lewis Milestone's best pictures, but is has its qualities, not least in the fullblown romantic scale, quite overdone, but there you have it.
YOU WILL NOT WANT THIS LASERLIGHT TRANSFER THOUGH, as it will probably be the worst you ever bought (unless you ever bought other LaserLight titles, because they are all excruciating to watch and listen to).
Please stay away from this, and bide your time, until another edition sees the light of day.


review by: date: 2002-03-08 rating:
Good film - Awful DVD
Let me start by saying that the film is quite a good one and although is not a masterpiece is quite an enjoyable one. Stanwyck is at her best and as we reach the climax the more interesting the film gets. BUT the DVD is a very poor copy that you don't expect a TV station to show. The brightness changes throughout the film. Every possible thing that can make you say it's a bad copy is here. I don't have any picture that I recorded from TV as bad as this one. And this one is digital!

---

Similar products

The Glass Key [1942]
The Blue Dahlia
Gilda [1946]
The Killers [1946]
The Postman Always Rings Twice [1946]

---

Similar categories

Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Classics . Drama
Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Drama
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . VHS
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . BBFC Rating (intended_use_browse-bin) . PG
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Editions (feature_two_browse-bin) . Standard Edition
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Release Date (feature_three_browse-bin) . 1940 - 1949
Video . Video . Categories . Classic Films . Actresses . Stanwyck, Barbara
Video . Video . Categories . Classic Films . Drama . 1940s
Video . Video . Categories . Drama . General
Video . Video . Refinements . Condition (condition-type)

---