The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

Released Jul 24, 1946

1h 56m

Drama

List

100%

12 Reviews

Tomatometer

74%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Young Martha (Barbara Stanwyck) inadvertently causes the death of her cruel, authoritarian aunt. Martha lies to the cops, and Walter (Kirk Douglas), who saw the crime, corroborates the girl's story. Eventually, they wed out of convenience; the meek Walter is genuinely in love, and Martha thinks that her secret is safe since she has married the one witness to her aunt's death. However, when her childhood pal, Sam (Van Heflin), shows up, Martha knows her dark past may not stay a secret for long.

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Jeff S

Kirk Douglas is unrelenting, Barbara Stanwyck is chilling, and there's no dearth of twists in this dark tale.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/16/24

Full Review

Bradley H

Films don't get much better. Van Heflin is superb as well as Lizabeth Scott. Stanwyck carries away the unhinged rich psychopath role with ease. Amazing film noir dialogue that's been played homage to over the years. Well worth every minute.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/19/23

Full Review

John T

A brilliant film noir with fantastic performances.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/15/23

Full Review

Matthew B

"The road curved, but I didn't." The dilemma of the characters in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is summarised in this line, which is said twice by the movie's hero, Sam Masterson (Van Heflin). How does one follow a straight path in life when the road that we are on is crooked? To refuse to curve, as Masterson tries to do, is to risk crashing. To bend along the path that life takes you is to risk becoming permanently twisted out of shape. The struggle to follow an honourable course in an indecent world is the traditional dilemma of the film noir hero, and Martha Ivers is a mixture of film noir and operatic melodrama. The film noir elements can be found in the look of the film – all shadows and unusual camera angles. The movie also has many film noir motifs – the compromised hero trying to do the right thing, the cracked actors that stand in his way, and the seedy underbelly of criminal activities. Not to mention the choice between two women (representing two possible futures), a more wholesome woman who could save him, and a femme fatale who will drag him into a situation from which he will not get away unscathed, and will be lucky to escape alive. The melodramatic side of the film can be found in its Grand-Guignol approach towards the story. There is the large Gothic house lit by a thunderstorm which frightens the movie's heroine. There is the macabre mother figure. And of course there is a terrible crime at the beginning of the movie that will reverberate throughout the rest of the proceedings. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is perhaps not in the top league of film noirs from the 1940s and 1950s, but it is still a decent and entertaining movie. The director Lewis Milestone does a competent job of telling a story which combines sleazy film noir with theatrical melodrama. I wrote a longer appreciation of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2019/07/20/the-strange-love-of-martha-ivers-1946/

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

09/18/23

Full Review

Steve D

Wonderfully acted semi-thriller.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

06/03/23

Full Review

Daniel S

Well cast, solid performances. The plot intensifies by the minute with intriguing twists right up until the last.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/14/23

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Lewis Milestone

Director

Barbara Stanwyck

Martha Ivers

Van Heflin

Sam Masterson

Kirk Douglas

Walter O'Neil

Lizabeth Scott

Toni Marachek

Judith Anderson

Mrs. Ivers

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Derek Adams

Time Out

A gripping film noir, all the more effective for being staged by Milestone as a steamy romantic melodrama.

Feb 9, 2006

Full Review

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Pervaded by his guilty-liberal fascination with power and money.

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Sean Burns

Crooked Marquee

In the hands of a great visual stylist (like Rossen himself) the movie could have been a masterpiece. As is, it’s still a corker.

Apr 4, 2023

Full Review

Sarah Boslaugh

TheArtsStl

...offers the great pleasures that can come from watching a well-made film that is happy to exploit genre conventions for all they’re worth.

Rated: 8/10

Dec 8, 2022

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

A sturdy melodrama-cum-film noir.

Rated: 3/4

Nov 7, 2022

Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is one of those really dark films noir that tends to get away with more than it seems to be getting away with.

Jul 2, 2012

Full Review

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Synopsis

Young Martha (Barbara Stanwyck) inadvertently causes the death of her cruel, authoritarian aunt. Martha lies to the cops, and Walter (Kirk Douglas), who saw the crime, corroborates the girl's story. Eventually, they wed out of convenience; the meek Walter is genuinely in love, and Martha thinks that her secret is safe since she has married the one witness to her aunt's death. However, when her childhood pal, Sam (Van Heflin), shows up, Martha knows her dark past may not stay a secret for long.

Director: Lewis Milestone
Screenwriter: John Patrick, Robert Rossen
Distributor: Laserlight Entertainment, Reel Media International [us], Master Movies, Kino Video, Paramount Pictures, Lumivision
Production Co: Paramount Pictures, Hal Wallis Productions
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 24, 1946, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 11, 2016
Runtime: 1h 56m
Sound Mix: Mono

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