Rent The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
3.7 of 5 from 76 ratings
1h 56min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
This dark melodrama based on the John Patrick story, Love Lies Bleeding, stars Barbara Stanwyck as the wonderfully wicked Martha Ivers, a wealthy and domineering woman who controls a small town after inheriting a large family fortune. She lives with her weakling husband, a district attorney running for mayor, played by Kirk Douglas in his feature film debut - a role that's an unusual departure from his later work. What no one in the town knows, however, is that Stanwyck and Douglas are bound by a dark secret involving murder. gripping and suspenseful, this film noir also stars Van Heflin as Martha's old love who returns to town after an 18-tear absence, whom Douglas thinks is there for one reason: blackmail. - Actors:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas, Judith Anderson, Roman Bohnen, Darryl Hickman, Janis Wilson, Ann Doran, Frank Orth, James Flavin, Mickey Kuhn, Charles D. Brown, Gene Ashley, Walter Baldwin, Bill Burt, Gino Corrado, Catherine Craig, Kernan Cripps, Sayre Dearing
- Directors:
- Lewis Milestone
- Producers:
- Hal B. Wallis
- Writers:
- Robert Rossen, John Patrick, Robert Riskin
- Others:
- Jack Patrick
- Aka:
- Love Lies Bleeding / Meaningful Glances / Strange Love
- Studio:
- Delta Visual Entertainment
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Romance, Thrillers
- Collections:
- 10 Films to Watch Next If You Liked The Babadook, Cinema Paradiso's 2022 Centenary Club, Films to Watch If You Like..., A Brief History of Film..., The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to: Robert Aldrich
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- Not released
- Run Time:
- 116 minutes
- Languages:
- English
- Subtitles:
- Spanish
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Audio Commentary with William Hare
- Trailer
- Before and After Restoration Demo!
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Reviews (3) of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Dark Melodrama - The Strange Love of Martha Ivers review by NO
Excellent story,rather dated at start but improved later.Kirk played against type & the under rated Heflin was also good &Stanwyk her usual excellent self.HOLLYWOOD AT ITS
best rather than the all action super heroes films we get now with little or no plots.
I enjoyed it.
Norman.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Noir Soap. - The Strange Love of Martha Ivers review by Steve
Hyperemotional, genre-blending curiosity which starts with 16 minutes of gaslight melodrama and concludes a lot like film noir. But what it mostly resembles is those glossy '50s melodramas adapted from fat bestsellers about a loner who drifts back to his old home town to uncover the corruption of the powerful people he left behind.
The opening flashback shows the murder of her brutal stepmother by a teenage girl. Who grows into Barbara Stanwyck. Kirk Douglas plays her husband, a witness to the coverup. Between them, they own Iverstown, a small city in the midwest. Van Heflin is her former childhood sweetheart who stumbles back into their toxic marriage and malign influence.
He forms an alliance with a jailbird (Lizabeth Scott). She's on parole for theft, though maybe censorship code for sex worker. Their early scenes are alluring, like restless, rootless nighthawks in an Edward Hopper painting. Stanwyck stars, but has more of a support role, until she ultimately revives her psycho-killer persona from Double Indemnity.
Kirk gets more screen time in his debut, oddly cast as the panicky submissive under her thumb. There's plenty of gloomy noir fatalism, but it more persuasively suggests those febrile, small town melodramas of the next decade, like Some Came Running. This isn't in Technicolor and CinemaScope. But it would feel appropriate if it was.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
Steamy Melodrama - Kirk Douglas in this first film aged about 30 - The Strange Love of Martha Ivers review by PV
I love old movies like this - they don;t make em like this any more and wouldn't. Not diverse enough racially and the women are passive which is now verboten - all women MUST be strong and independent and in charge now. That is a new cliche, a new stereotype, of our metoo woke age.
SO I enjoy the lack of pc preaching in these old movies even more.
A decent story from a book - all dark love story and death and guilt. Very Tennessee Williams except it isn't.
I enjoyed it anyway - a long film by the standards of its day at almost 2 hours.
Kirk Douglas cast against macho man type too.
4 stars.
0 out of 2 members found this review helpful.