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Customer Reviews of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers / Kirk Douglas on Film - A Biography

More Melodrama Than Noir, And Not Bad
Some people call this a noir, and a good one. Some call it a psychological study of guilt. I think it's a melodrama, but a well-crafted one. What moves it from noir to melodrama for me is that there are two weak motivating actions for the plot; the first (the death of the aunt) doesn't have enough power to justify the drama, and the second (a conviction of an innocent man) is barely mentioned until the end of the movie. <
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>Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) is driving west when he decides to go through Iverstown. He has a car accident and has to stay in town until his car is fixed. He meets a young woman, Toni Marachek (Lizabeth Scott), just out of jail and on probation for a crime she wasn't guilty of. Sam decides to go to the district attorney to see if he can help her. Years before as young kids, Sam and the DA, Walter O'Neil (Kirk Douglas), were sort-of friends, tied together by their friendship with Martha Ivers (Barbara Stanwyck). <
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>Now O'Neil is married to Martha. He's running for re-election. Martha inherited Ivers Industries and is the wealthiest woman in town. She's a force to be reckoned with. She inherited millions when her aunt fell down a flight of stairs 18 years ago...the night she and Sam were planning to run off, when Walter was in the house with her and Sam. Her aunt (Judith Anderson), a rigid, disapproving, condescending woman, fell with the help of a crack on the head from a cane wielded by Martha. A few years later a man was hanged for the crime, prosecuted by Walter with testimony from Martha. They married and now live a loveless life, with Walter still the uncertain and sometimes scared child he used to be and Martha a controlling woman. Walter drinks heavily and Martha is contemptuous of him. Now Sam is back, innocently, but Walter in particular is convinced Sam is out to shake them down. "He's a gambler, a sharp shooter, an angle boy," he says to Martha. "They come through my office by the hundreds. Couldn't you see blackmail in his eyes?" <
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>Things quickly spiral down into a morass of misunderstandings, guilt, what might pass for love, and temptation. Walter loves Martha. Martha loves Sam. Sam loves Toni but is tempted by Martha. Toni loves Sam. All is resolved one night in the Ivers' mansion with Martha, Walter and Sam playing out a potentially murderous triangle. But it's 1946, and with the Production Code in place there's little doubt which two people will die and which person will survive as a wiser man. When Martha urges Sam to kill Walter so that they can be together, Sam puts his finger on it. "Martha,' he says, "you're sick...in your mind, I mean, that's where you're sick...so sick you don't even know the difference between right and wrong." <
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>The movie is beautifully photographed, for the most part the pacing is good, the establishment of the three leads' personalities as children is excellently carried over into the performances and personalities of the three as adults. Unfortunately, the death of the aunt just doesn't seem to be a strong enough element to justify all the angst. The aunt was in the process of beating Martha's cat with her cane on the stairs when Martha grabbed the cane and struck her aunt. Any half-way competent lawyer would have been able to get a young heiress off without relying on Martha coming up with having seen a large burglar running from the house. This makes what follows, even with Martha's intensity, seem out of proportion. Some of the dialogue, especially that given to Stanwyck and Douglas, is solid and uneasy...or maybe it's their expert line delivery. But a good deal of the words Heflin and Scott have to say can sound artificial. "They said they wouldn't hurt you," Toni says to Sam when she tries to explain why she helped set him up for a beating. "No more parole, they said, if I went for it. I'd draw the whole five, they said, if I didn't. I went for it. Go ahead and hit me, Sam. I've got it comin.'" Sam looks at her questioningly...then tenderly. "The one thing you've got comin', kid, is a break." <
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>Even so, as melodrama it's fun to watch. Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin do nice jobs, and Kirk Douglas makes a strong impression. He may be playing a weak drunk, but you look at him while he's on screen. <
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>The DVD picture is in great shape. If you buy this movie, be sure you get this Paramount version. There are a large number of other public domain versions out which look terrible. There are no extras.

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A very convincing film noir movie portraying the folly of relationships built on deceit and greed.
This review is for the 2005 Paramount DVD release. <
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>The story starts out in 1928 in a small industrial town known as Iverstown. A young teenage girl named Martha Ivers and a teenage boy named Sam Masterson try to hop a train and escape. Martha is caught and is returned to her wealthy aunt's mansion. The animosity between Martha and her aunt is a volatile as fire and gasoline. That same evening a boy named Walter O'Neil and his father visit the Ivers' mansion to take credit for helping the police find Martha with the unspoken expectation of receiving a major reward, but only receive a poultry payment of ice cream and cake for Walter. Later that evening there is a power outage and Sam sneaks into the Ivers Mansion in hopes of taking Martha away on the next train out of town. Martha's aunt goes upstairs to see what is going on, while Sam narrowly escapes as a fight ensues between Martha and her aunt. With Walter watching, Martha strikes her aunt with her aunt's walking cane and she topples down a long staircase and immediately dies. With Walter O'Neil's interests in mind, Walter's father ignores any hint of foulplay by Martha and wishfully believes Martha's story that her aunt was murdered by an unknown intruder and reports this crime to the police. Meanwhile Sam hops a circus train and leaves Iverstown. <
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>Fast forward to 1946 and we find an alchoholic Walter (played by Kirk Douglas) and Martha (Barbara Stanwyck) are now married to each other. Walter is the local District Attorney and Martha is the sole heiress to the Ivers' industrial empire. Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) passes through Iverstown for the first time since 1928, but has a minor car accident and decides to stay in town overnight to get his car fixed. While waiting, he meets an attractive woman named Toni Marachek (Lizabeth Scott) who seems desperate for companionship. They stay in the same hotel, in adjoining rooms, and Sam finds out that Toni was just released from jail. Sam is sympathetic and reassures Toni that her past has no bearing on their future relationship. The next morning Sam finds out that Toni was arrested for a parole violation. Sam discovers that same morning that Walter is the DA and visits him to see if he can help get Toni back on the street. During the visit, Martha drops in and she is elated to see Sam and it becomes obvious that Walter is jealous of Martha's attention to Sam. When Sam leaves, Walter and Martha convince themselves that Sam's visit was solely for the purpose of blackmailing them for Martha's crime that Sam witnessed. This sets up the remainder of the movie for plenty of drama and suspense as the four main characters involve themselves in passion, deceit and greed. <
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>The movie is riveting from beginning to end. The story is absolutely brilliant in depicting how trust and deceit work against each other no matter how rewarding the stakes may be and also exposes that when lives are built on a foundation of vile acts, the foundation will eventually crumble. I also enjoyed that in spite of the four main characters revealing their despicable human flaws, the movie ends with a redeeming message. Lizabeth Scott does a superb job in her supporting role. <
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>The DVD quality is very good overall. The contrast was at times washed out and the there were also traces of minor film deterioration appearing intermittantly throughout the film. But overall, the presentation was still very enjoyable. There were no bonuses on this DVD. <
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>Movie: A- <
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>DVD Quality: B+

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A 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. <
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>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. <
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>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. <
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>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. <
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>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. <
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>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. <
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>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. <
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>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.