Visiting Film Noir: The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

1946 Film Noir
From Paramount Pictures
Story by John Patrick
Adapted by Robert Rossen
Directed by Lewis Milestone

Starring
Barbara Stanwyck
Van Heflin
Lizabeth Scott
Kirk Douglas
Judith Anderson
Janis Wilson
Darryl Hickman
Roman Bohnen
Mickey Kuhn

During a power storm in 1928, 13-year Martha witnesses her hated, wealthy aunt hit a kitten with her cane.  The girl rushes down the circular staircase and takes the cane away from her aunt and pummels her with it and she dies.  The event is witnessed by Martha's shy friend, Walter.  Their mutual friend Sam had left the mansion and seen nothing.  As Walter's father (who is also Martha's tutor) arrives and shockingly asks what happened, Martha blurts out that a stranger broke in and killed the aunt.  Martha said she got a glimpse of him.  Isn't that right, Walter? she says.  Haltingly Walter says that it is.  A man was later accused, Martha identified him as the killer and he was executed.

A couple of decades later, Martha (Stanwyck) and Walter (Douglas) live in the mansion.  They have been unhappily married for years.  She runs the local factory with an iron fist.  She runs Walter with the other one.  He's Iverstown's district attorney because Martha made it so.  She doesn't go too long without reminding him of his good fortune.  He doesn't go too long before pouring himself a drink and in a day, in and out of work, he pours many.

Sam (Heflin), yes, that Sam who walked away and missed the aunt's demise, hasn't lived in town for many years.  He is now on the outskirts of town when he hits a tree, which means he'll be laid up in Iverstown while the car is repaired. 

Stanwyck was opposed to Scott being billed above the title

He walks by his former boarding house when out comes a vision of blonde loveliness and he's completely dazzled.  Her name is Toni (Scott) and she's just come off probation for theft.  They form a rather fast friendship.  They get separate hotel rooms with a connecting bath and share stories that confirm both had tumultuous childhoods and are at lose ends now.  Sam says that he is heading west after the car's fixed and would Toni like to come along?  She sure would, she coos.  Oh yes, Sam says, one other thing... he has some old friends here he'd like to just stop in and say hi to.  Toni will remain behind.

Here's where the film gets complicated in true noir fashion.  The doors are opened wide for ambiguity or confusion (whichever one might favor) and certainly sexual obsession and entrapment and all nestled in the bosom of crime.  And most noirs have a bad girl and for my ticket purchase, it didn't get any better than Stanwyck.  Just two years and three films earlier she gave the world of noir a sizzling performance in Double Indemnity and Martha was her first return to the genre.  She does not disappoint.

Martha and Walter have a sick relationship, a sham of a marriage, that might have gone on forever had Sam not returned.  Neither realizes that Sam doesn't know of the true circumstances of the murder and therefore are greatly concerned about what he is up to.  The couple goes into overdrive.

Walter has Toni jailed on some trumped-up charges and facing five years and then is willing to release her providing she betrays Sam by setting him up to get bashed by a few thugs.  Toni hates herself and Sam is starting to feel the same way.

Meanwhile there's Martha.  She decides to put the moves on Sam and we can't be positive if she's sincere or not.  Or perhaps she isn't sincere at first but then comes to love him or at least see him as a way out from Walter.  

And Sam thinks he may be in love with Martha at the same time that he has been talking of going out west with Toni.  But the tension is palpable as Martha, with her latent sadism, oddly mentions the murder of her aunt to Sam and then is dumbstruck when he says he didn't know.  Now the claws come out because the murderess has not forgotten her skills.

The film ends in the mansion with Martha, Walter and Sam.  It's all such a cat 'n' mouse game with grand writing and acting.  It has one of my favorite endings of all the film noirs I've seen but you must see it for yourself.  This film is readily available on YouTube and is often on television.  Check it out.

Unfortunately there was a cloud of turmoil hanging over the entire production because there was a labor dispute going on involving several unions.  Most serious was a ruckus that erupted outside the studio gates that put everyone on edge.

Hal Wallis is the producer.  He'd became dissatisfied with his life at Warner Bros and became an independent producer.  Martha Ivers is one of his first productions in his new capacity.  He had total say-so on the many fine films he made and he put several actors under contract, Scott among them.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers was Kirk Douglas's first film.  His New York pal Lauren Bacall suggested to Wallis that he hire Douglas.  The newbie thought he was getting the Heflin role and was very surprised that Wallis saw him as being right to play a weakling.  But play him he did and to this day I regard it as one of Douglas's most unusual but fascinating parts.  He would go on to work for Wallis four more times.

Douglas said that Heflin, a much bigger star at the time, was very nice to him, helping him along the way.  Douglas was in awe of Stanwyck but for awhile thought of her as Miss Standoff.  Ultimately she came around, praised Douglas's work to the heavens and they, too, became pals.  

Douglas, who would next make another Wallis film with Scott (I Walk Alone) didn't think much of her.  It was just her second film and she was under exclusive contract to Wallis for whom she would make nine films.  In his autobiography, Douglas intimated Scott and Wallis were carrying on an affair.  He said they would spend long times in his trailer and when she came out, she'd often be crying and was difficult to work with.  I adored her but this was not her best acting job.  She is the least effective of the four principals.

I cannot say it enough... it was always a pleasure to see Heflin.  I guess he wasn't pretty enough to become a huge movie star but he was a lovely actor in so many films.  He made a dozen or so noirs.  He and Stanwyck were good buddies.  This is the first of their three films together, B.F.'s Daughter (1948) and East Side West Side (1949) being the other two. 

I don't know anything about Stanwyck that is new to share.  I not only did a piece on her but have reviewed countless films she's been in... and we're not done yet.  She was always a magnetic actress but when she went bad, I went gaga.  Martha is a perfect role for her.

Speaking of magnetic, Judith Anderson, the formidable one, often frightening, is superb in her couple of scenes as the wicked aunt.  She and Stanwyck would return to work for Wallis in The Furies (1950) where, this time, Stanwyck stabs Anderson in the face with a pair of scissors.

Those child actors were pretty special here too, but particularly Janis Wilson as the young Martha.  Chilling wouldn't be too strong of a word to describe her.  She only made seven films with the first one being equally memorable, young Tina in Now Voyager (1942).  Darryl Hickman (memorable the year before as the kid Gene Tierney allows to drown in Leave Her to Heaven) as young Sam and Mickey Kuhn as young Walter also deserve a shout-out.  Kuhn must have been chosen for his strong resemblance to Douglas.

Milestone was an unusual choice to helm a noir (and in this case with a female lead) because he was one of the top directors of war films.  He turned over much of the directing here to his two assistant directors who would go on to their own directing careers, Byron Haskin and Robert Rossen, the latter of whom also wrote the screenplay.  Milestone did not like working for Wallis with whom he argued frequently... generally over how many closeups Lizabeth Scott was to get.

I always think of parties I used to attend when I think of this film.  We used to play Hollywood trivia games and this one would come up as an answer to name any Hollywood movie that starred three lesbian actresses.  While there are a couple of choices, this one is the best answer.

I would certainly put the film in the top echelon of film noirs.  Although it is not perfect, it is good enough to warrant attention.  And to say I love this cast is an understatement.

Here's a look:

Next posting:
A sad tale