Fave Movies: "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers"

One of the movies I remember watching as a tween, before I could really understand and appreciate the nuances, is "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" starrring Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin and introducing (in his first role) Kirk Douglas.

The film is a very noir-ish tale of three children: Martha Ivers, the child of one of Iverstown's leading families; Sam Masterson, the daring and adventurous boy/friend and Walter O'Neill, a weak boy with a scheming father.  

The story begins with Martha and Sam running away in the town train yard.  They plan to ride a boxcar out of town but are caught.  Martha is taken home to her domineering aunt, but Sam runs away.  Martha has a fight with her aunt and makes it clear that she intends to keep running away from her and her controlling ways.  Walter is brought to the house by his father, who intends to see that his boy gets as much credit as possible for tipping the police to Martha and Sam's whereabouts and their plans.  To his delight, Mrs. Ivers promises to reward the boy, but the reward turns out to be a piece of cake, with some ice cream added as an afterthought.

Walter and Martha go to her room while the adults talk in the parlor.  Sam shows up outside of Martha's window.  Martha wants to go away with Sam that night, but he tells her it is best if she stays.  Meanwhile Martha's kitten runs down the stairs.  She starts after it but Sam goes instead.  Hearing Martha stage whisper to Sam, her aunt starts upstairs to investigate.  Frightened by the kitten and enraged, she begins to beat at it with her cane.  Martha and Walter see this and Marta moves to stop her.  She takes the cane and hits her aunt, causing her to fall down the stairs.  Walter's father rushes to her and declares her dead.  

After calling the police, Walter's father coaches the children on what to tell the police.  Martha and Walter have already decided to say that a strange man entered the house and attacked her aunt.  That story becomes their secret.

Eighteen years later, Sam Masterson returns to Iverstown by chance.  He has travelled, fought overseas in the war and makes his living by gambling.  He is surprised to find that not only is little Walter O'Neill the District Attorney, his wife is none other than Martha Ivers.  Sam meets a girl, Toni Marachek, a girl with a secret of her own.  They form a bond and plan to leave town together the next day.  

Sam is awakened the next morning by two detectives.  They tell him that Toni was on parole and one of the stipulations was that she leave Iverstown the night before.  Since she did not, she was arrested.  Sam decides to look up his old friend the District Attorney and pull some strings.  Walter is shaken by the sudden appearance of Sam, but plays it cool.  Martha stops by the office and all three see each other for the first time in eighteen years.  Afterward Walter is convinced that Sam has come to town to blackmail them for all he can get, using the truth of Mrs. Ivers' death as leverage.  He decides to do a background check and, for good measure, he decides to use Toni to set Sam up.  Here is the scene where Sam is run out of town:

Sam returns to town, determined to get Walter. 

"The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" is a minor noir film, with some plot holes, but overall a very enjoyable movie.  It has a great atmosphere and a very good performance from Van Heflin as the world weary gambler.  There are a lot of great character actors who appear in it, particularly John Kellogg, who plays "Joe" the private detective who pretends to be Toni's husband.  Toni is played by Lizabeth Scott.

Scott was, at this time, being marketed as the poor man's Lauren Bacall.  A few years later she was involved in a scandal involving one of Hollywood's more notorious gossip magazines.  They featured her in a story and hinted at her "deviant sexual behavior", 40's code for being a lesbian.  This almost derailed her career, particularly since it was true.  She had a few more good roles, most notably as the wily promoter in Elvis Presley's "Loving You" in 1957. 

Van Heflin went on to have a solid career in Hollywood with his biggest roles being the farmer Starrett in "Shane", Major Huxley in "Battle Cry" and the reluctant deputy in the original "3:10 to Yuma".

Barbara Stanwyck was already an established star and of course Kirk Douglas went on to become one of the greatest stars of all time, really hitting his stride in the 50's with such roles as "Young Man with a Horn", "The Bad and the Beautiful", "Lust for Life", "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (with Burt Lancaster)", "Paths of Glory" and "Spartacus".