Cheap Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Video) (Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin) (Lewis Milestone) Price

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Customer Reviews of Strange Love of Martha Ivers

Nothin' so "strange" about this love!
When I heard the title of this movie I had to see it since it piqued my curiosity--how unusual, I thought. Therefore I'm pretty sure the powers that be named it for exactly that reason, because although he's intriguing, there's nothing really "strange" about this love of Martha Ivers. Nevertheless, a fascinating and highly suspenseful overlooked noir starring a cunningly beautiful Barbara Stanwyk in one of the title roles as Martha Ivers, a wealthy heiress transformed by her heartless aunt (played by a wonderfully wicked Judith Anderson) and many empty years from a scarred and disillusioned young girl to a promiscuous and sociopathic vixen. The unaptly labelled "love" of Martha's which arouses much curiosity is played by Van Heflin as Sam Masterson, a rakish and successful young gambler who grew up with Martha before he ran away. In his film debut, although not in his niche Kirk Douglas does a reliable job as Walter O'Neill, a spineless suck-up who is an alcoholic to ease his tortured conscience. The story begins eventfully when young Martha kills her aunt in a fit of rage after her aunt thwarts her plans to runaway with Sam and bludgeons her beloved kitten to death. Walter is by her side when it happens and due to his loyalty and affection for Martha, corroborates her story that an intruder did it--which would later lead to an innocent man getting executed. The two kids then naturally assume Sam also saw what really happened just before he took off. Fast forward 18 years later as Sam inadvertently returns home to find himself enmeshed in a web of lust, murder, duplicity, dark childhood secrets and intrigue when now-husband-and-wife Martha and Walter naturally (but mistakenly) believe he has returned back and gone to see Walter--who's also D.A. due to his wife's power and influence--not to get his convict girlfriend out of the local clink, but that he wants to blackmail them. This wrong belief causes them to take actions which in turn leads Sam down a dark road toward discovering many disturbing things about two people he thought he knew but who have changed greatly (and for the worse) in the intervening years. Although Heflin and Douglas are good in their respective roles, one cannot help imagining it with Douglas instead in the role of principled tough guy Sam as he was initially promised before he was unceremoniously dumped and Heflin took over his role, after which Douglas had to submit to the indignity of auditioning for Walter the Weakling against Montgomery Clift and Richard Widmark (!). Hard to miss is breathtakingly lovely Lizabeth Scott as Antonia "Toni" Marracheck in her poignant performance as the sultry but sweet (and unjustly guilty) convict girlfriend of Sam, who stands by her man come rain or shine.

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WHISPER her name!
After her spectacular launch into the genre as Phyllis (Duplicitous) Dietrichson in 1944's Double Indemnity, Barbara Stanwyck consolidated her reputation as the First Lady of Film Noir in this malevolent gothic. The broken-backed narrative lines spans a key bit of Martha Ivers' shall-we-say rebellious girlhood then jumps to the (postwar) present, when she reigns absolutely as industrial queen of Iverstown. (The original movie posters warned, "WHISPER her name!") One leftover from the past is her husband, Kirk Douglas, a once-brilliant district attorney going seriously into bourbon and paranoia. Back into Iverstown drives another chum from the bad old days, Van Heflin, with a waif in tow (Lizabeth Scott -- how much more noir can you get, short of Marie Windsor?). They're a flammable foursome. While in many respects this film is quintessentially noir, it eschews slapdash, brutal pace and energy in favor of a creepier, more brooding tone -- in many ways, it's closer kin to older movies like Kings Row than, say, Stanwyck's subsequent The File on Thelma Jordon. {P.S. Beware cheaper VHS versions; some are recorded on EP speed, and so unacceptably murky --both visually and aurally. Even in crisp black-and-white, this is a murky enough picture.)

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Van and Liz are a great team - ****1/2 / *****
This review refers to the Alpha Video (Gotham) DVD.

Overall Quality of DVD: ***1/2 /**** Sound: *** /**** Plot: ***1/2 /**** Acting: ***1/2 /**** Cinematography: ***1/2 /**** Direction: ***1/2 /****

You will be surprised at the quality of this GOTHAM transfer. There are some frame skips but other than that this DVD is a steal-of-a-deal and an "A"-rated film-noir!

Kirk Douglas and Barbara Stanwyck are very intense in their roles but, in my opinion, Van Heflin and Lizabeth Scott steal the show. Lizabeth Scott plays the beaten-down, always-taken-advantage-of, world-weary, down-on-her-luck, cute, sexy girl that... well, you just want to take her in your arms and give her a hug, yet, you also know if you do, you will probably have to kiss her and then you'll probably fall in love with her (just as Van Heflin does). In my opinion, this is Lizabeth Scotts' best role that I've seen ("Dead Reckoning" she is also quite good in - "Too Late For Tears" she is not as strong). She seems to need a strong hand in direction and when she gets it she can give A-level performances.

Mickey Kuhn as the young Kirk Douglas, Darryl Hickman (Dwayne Hickman's "Dobie Gillis" younger brother) as the young Van Heflin and Janis Wilson as the young Martha Ivers give riveting performances and are so "in character" in looks and mannerisms with the adult actors it will amaze you!

Also, Judith Anderson (Mrs. Danvers (Danny) in "Rebecca") gives a wonderfully sinister performance.

This is an "A+" story, acted well, directed well, filmed well, great production design and a very smooth transfer.

This film is worthy of restoration but is worthy in its present incarnation as is.