The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Directed by Lewis Milestone
1946/USA
Hal Wallis Productions
First viewing

[box] Sam Masterson: Don’t look back, baby.  Don’t ever look back.[/box]

There are some fine performances in this noirish melodrama about childhood secrets.

The film opens in 1928 in Iverstown with rebellious young Martha Ivers and Sam Masterson in a freight car preparing to run away to join the circus.  Detectives soon apprehend the girl and return her to her hated aunt (Judith Anderson).  The aunt is waiting along with Martha’s tutor and his timid son Walter O’Neill.  Sam briefly sneaks into the house to say goodbye to Martha.  When the aunt attacks Martha’s cat, Martha grabs a poker out of her hands and strikes her, killing her.  Walter is a witness and backs up Martha’s lie about a mysterious intruder.  His father does the same and the O’Neills have a lifetime grip on Martha and her money.  Martha goes on to marry Walter.

Segue to 1946 and Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) wrecks his car while driving through Iverstown.  He must stick around to have it fixed and soon meets sultry ex-con Toni (Lizabeth Scott) who has just been paroled from jail.  Sam catches up with District Attorney Walter when Toni is picked up for a parole violation.  Walter (Kirk Douglas) is terrified that Sam will blackmail Martha (Barbara Stanwyck) and him for the aunt’s death and is also jealous of his wife’s continued love for Sam.  He has Sam roughed up to encourage him to leave town but Sam does not scare easily.

Although I thought the story did not quite hold together, I enjoyed this, largely for the performances.  Barbara Stanwyck is my favorite actress of classic Hollywood and she is very good here as the wounded but steely Martha.  Van Heflin has more to do than in other films I have seen him in and is excellent.  Lizabeth Scott was OK but too obviously a stand-in for Lauren Bacall for her own good.  It was Kirk Douglas in his film debut that was the most interesting.

Douglas’s Walter is repeatedly referred to by Sam as looking like “a scared little boy.”  He is evidently a chronic alcoholic and spends much of his screen time drunk.  I could almost see Douglas smoothing out the lines of his face through sheer willpower as he tried to act weak and cowardly.  He couldn’t quite manage it.  That aggressive, macho Douglas persona was not to be repressed.  This is not to say Douglas was bad, far from it.  His star quality shines through and he is compelling.  It was just a whole lot of fun to see him play against type and to try to remember that he was supposed to be afraid of Sam and not the other way around.

Trailer